Autohelm 4000 help

[pebrown1]

I have an older Autohelm 4000 and Raymarine support will not help - they do not even want to talk to me)

Problem: Auto pilot would only turn the wheel when -1 or -10 button pushed.
Would only beep on the +1 +10 buttons and start a constant alarm after a few seconds. Then stopped working - not respond to any buttons pushed.
Note: then ring assembley rotates freely and clutch is fine.

Unscrewed motor form ring to be sure no binding and it would not respond to buttons. Then applied 12vDC to its terimals and the motor would turn either direction base on pos or neg applied to differnet terminals.

Bought a used head and connected - everything worked for three trys then stopped reponding to any button being pushed. Again removed motor from ring and applied 12VDC to teriminals and it worked.

Any ideas on how to identify problem and fix. New unit way too expensive!

Thanks for ur time.

[sailingdog]

Did you replace the course computer?? IIRC, most of these units have three components—the display/control head, the wheel drive and the course computer. Sounds like the course computer is fried.