Need Help – Garmin Reactor Autopilot Totally Out – Maybe ECU or Pump?
Hey folks,
We’re currently underway and completely lost our autopilot (Garmin Reactor 40 with hydraulic steering from Lacombe and Schmidt rv2). We’ve had a lot of issues with the Garmin system before – it often loses settings if the boat’s been off for more than 1 week and we have to redo dockside setup, sea trial wizard, rudder cal, etc. Super annoying but usually fixable.
This time, it fully dropped out while we were underway. Checked all wiring and the rudder sensor appears to be functioning. After anchoring, we spent hours on the phone with Garmin. They suspect the ECU might be bad – we can’t complete the dockside wizard. It gets to the part where we center the wheel and it tries to engage the pump… we hear the pump kick on (loudly), but it doesn’t move the rudders at all and the wizard won’t proceed.
Hydraulic fluid is topped up and hasn’t dropped since last fill. We bled the whole system too – no change. Garmin’s sending a replacement ECU once we download the fault logs.
Question is – could this be a hydraulic pump issue instead? Anyone have this happen before or know what pump failure looks or sounds like? This pump’s is very noisy , but not sure if it’s normal. The autopilot does engage on wizard, but rudders do not move. Without the auto pilot engage the steering system seems perfect. Rudders perfectly aligned we really appreciate any thought or guesses.
Would really appreciate any thoughts, guesses, or things to try while we wait on parts. Thanks in advance!
I’m not a Garmin person, but I would believe what Garmin tech support is telling you. It’s probably your ECU, as the boat steers fine manually. The noise that a system makes when you’re carefully listening to it, probably sounds much louder than when you’re not listening to it! Can you tell it to do +/- 10 degrees and have it steer appropriately?
Sorry that you’re having these issues. Where are you (or headed to)?
Thanks Geoff. That was Patrick sentiment as well. I appreciate your insight. We’re not very savvy with electronics. We’re not very techie. lol. I love this group. Great support. We are currently making our rounds around Long Island. We are anchored in beautiful black Island, Rhode Island. Probably going to head to Newport and some Connecticut stops. Perhaps Montauk and Fisher’s Island. Fun.
I do not know what the “dockside wizard” is or the meaning of the abbreviation “ECU”. Applying my engineering knowledge to your explanation I would try and insure that your autopilot pump is functioning properly. Without having consulted any technical documentation I do assume that if the pump is rotating it should push the hydraulic fluid in either direction (refer to the picture of the autopilot pump on Bahati). I assume there is no additional regulating hydraulic fluid valve somewhere in the pipe circuit between pump and the rudders hydraulic cylinders.
If you do hear the pump rotating but the rudders are not moving the pumps gear might be faulty!?
I am pretty sure it is NOT your ECU but that the shear pin in your auto pilot pump has broken
The reason for saying this is that if you can hear the pump working when you say move the auto pilot ten degrees to port but the rudders don’t move it’s normally the shear pin
It’s a reasonably easy ( and believe it or not cheap:winking_face_with_tongue: fix) as long as you have a 7 or 8mm wrench also known as a spanner …. You can’t get a socket onto the nuts on the back of the pump
I am sailing at the moment so this is just a quick response
Will post photos later
Feel free to call as well Tracy
I am in Spain
Hi guys
I totally agree with Antoine. To check if the pump runs correctly, you can disconnect the pump from the ECU and connecting two cables direct from the -/+ from the DB board. This will help you to test the pump.
I had the same problems like you. In the end it was the ECU, but testing the pump disconnected from the ECU will tell you the truth.
Hope you get your problems solved quickly.
Solution: I just wanted to update everyone on the auto pilot problem. Steve from Tsalta reached out as he had a similar issue. It turns out that the motor has a coupler and a sheer pin or what the manufacturer calls a roll pin that attaches the coupler. This pin was broken, causing the autopilot motor to run, but not control the pump. The solution was a new coupler and roll pin. We disconnected the motor from the hydraulic pump. There’s four very small screws, our pump used an 8 mm wrench. Once you disconnect the four screws the motor disconnects quite easily and you can very quickly see this sheer pin and coupler how they connect. We ordered spare pin, coupler and motor for future. The auto pilot failed on very calm weather, it wasn’t under stress at the time. My feeling is that this is part that should be in spare parts inventory. I have photos attached of broken motor and new for reference. Shout out to Steve for quick diagnostic. Also in United States we ordered part from PYI.com. We have a lacombe and Schmitt autopilot.
Yes, in the first photo, the broken pin parts are on the paper towels and part of the pin is stuck in the shaft. The pin had to be completely removed from the inside of shaft and coupler and then replaced. The second photo is how it is supposed to look. This motor, then easily slips into the pump and reconnects using the 4 small screw. The roll pin is very small
I found the motor as a spare part but I can’t find the roll pin separately - do you have a part number or link? Maybe even just dimensions as I would think it’s quite a generic part.
This is same drive we have and I am attaching our drive part number and the part numbers from PYI the coupler and pin is 62.00, we ordered a spare motor as well.
Also our pump is 24v This is important when ordering. The gentleman I dealt with at PYI his name is Phil Quartaro. pquartararo@pyiinc.com I just emailed him direct and he helped me out. I gave him the pump part number and he was able to send me an extra motor and also a coupler and a roll pin. He also helped Steve. They’re pretty receptive. They’re based out of Seattle in USA. There’s also a company in France named auquanautique. I have been successful in ordering items from them as well. They have this particular product line and they also had Vitrigo icemaker parts. After our first year with our icemaker, the actual touchpad for the icemaker that is on the front of the icemaker …it’s the touchpad that turns on and off the icemaker, a little computer that went bad and I ordered apart from this French company and they delivered it no problem. They also have this pump and spare parts I believe in their system. They deliver everywhere
Not sure why, we were in moderate conditions at the time. We do get alerts from time to time on autopilot that the rudder reached its limit. I believe the standard is 10 degrees. Not sure if overtime that overworking can wear that pin.
Perhaps a question for PYI, they were very helpful and had the parts in stock.
I was about to suggest that hitting the end-stops might be a cause for the pin to shear. I suppose it is there as a sacrificial part to break first before something else more significant breaks.
The only time we have had issues reaching the limits was when our rudders went out of alignment. If your rudders are properly aligned and centred and you are reaching the end-stops at times, then you may want to recalibrate the autopilot settings.
After the autopilot does its calibration I normally knock a couple of extra degrees off the maximum angle just for a safety buffer.
If the rudders go out of alignment, the issue we had was that only one of them is being monitored by the rudder angle sensor - but the 2nd rudder can be driven into the end-stop because of the mis-alignment.
What is the Rudder Stop Limit? Is that’s what’s set in the autopilot telling it not to go past some certain angle? I guess that you’re getting warnings when it can’t hold the course, in which case you probably need to reduce sail or change what sails are up.
…. You can’t get a socket onto the nuts on the back of the pump
