Autopilot disengages, boat turns hard port

[max from alaska]

On my 2014 R27 the autopilot will sometimes disengage on its own and the boat will turn hard to port. Any insights on this problem and possible remedies?

Thank you

 

[Mr. Ed]

Welcome to the ever growing club. Most likely it's the check valve inside the autopilot pump that has failed your boat, as it has on mine and more than a few others. The temporary fix is to gently tighten the three brass screws on the end of the pump, effectively isolating it from the steering system, but this will prevent the autopilot from working, so be sure not to try to use it.

The fix is usually accomplished by installing an external check valve assembly, or upgrading to a smart pump. I'm now on my third pump (all covered by warranty), with under 100 hours on the boat. Lots of other posts in other threads about all this. A search will reveal all there is to know, much better than I can explain it. Good luck!

 

[max from alaska]

Ed, thanks. Question….when this happens and it turns hard port and the autopilot disengages to Standby, I steer back on course because the manual steering still seems to work fine. Then when back on heading I push Engage and the autopilot holds the heading just fine. Then maybe once a day (sometimes not at all in a day) it disengages (drops to Standby) and steers hard left again and I repeat this process. I seem to be able to always steer manually. Were you experiencing a different set of symptoms, ie total loss of manual and autopilot steering to require closing the three isolation valves in the pump in order to manually steer home?
I’m working on getting this fixed but in the meantime want to keep on the water. Would feel ok about that scenario if the three isolation valve closure would get me home in manual steering if that went out.

 

[scross]

Max,
Just checking to make sure the Man Overboard function is not getting accidentally activated. Our old unit has a button that has been accidentally pressed twice in 6 years. It’s an exciting few seconds when it happens!

 

[Mr. Ed]

I misunderstood what you are experiencing. It now sounds like you might want to run the self-calibration on the head unit. I can't talk you through it, but it's in the menu. All you need is a large area of relatively flat water and little or no traffic, as the program will require you to make a couple of full turns to calibrate the internal compass, then it will steer the boat in a zig zag course that makes it look like the captain might be having a seizure or had a few too many at the bar.

In the condition I described originally with autopilot off, the rudder would drift to port ALL the time (barely noticeable at first, then increasing over time) and eventually require constant right wheel just to steer a straight course (until isolating it with the three screws).

If that doesn't work, I can recommend a good witch doctor or exorcist to banish the demons. :mrgreen:

 

[Ralf H]

Hi Max,

Mr Ed had it right on his last post. It does not appear that you are experiencing the GHP10 pump issue as described earlier. A running of the sea trial wizard should help get your autopilot back to normal. I would also recommend doing a software update through Garmin's website before you do, so you know that you have the latest software for the autopilot and should be able to get the best performance out of it. You will need an SD card to do that. The software can be found here:

https://www.garmin.com/en-US/support/software/marine/

Scroll down the page to the section that says "download updates manually"

Once you have done that, you will find the seatrial wizard in the setup section in the menu of your GHC20 autopilot screen.

Hope this helps,

Cheers!

Ralf

 

[max from alaska]

Thanks Ralf and Ed. I’ll give it a go.