Simrad Wheelpilot

[RichardElliott]

I recently broke a drive belt on a 16 month old WP30 in British Columbia and called several marinas for replacements without luck. I was told that the nearest belt was in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia! The Manual recommends replacement every three or four years by a professional and has no instructions for disassembly. Wouldn''t this give you a lot of confidence in the Azores or Polynesia! On return to the States, the Simrad technician stated that for warranty replacement the unit must be returned to Simrad, I pay the freight plus a $50 labor charge and they will replace the $60 belt for free. How''s that for lousy customer service! Richard Elliott.

[rbtpfe9]

Ouch! I recently purchased an older boat with similar unit on it with a broken belt. Being the novice that I am I walked into a West Marine store a month or so ago and the salesguy said it was critical that I have the old belt in order to replace correctly. Of course old belt is gone. Simrad manual onboard was downloaded of internet so no specs included specific for my unit. With your experience seems like this is gonna be an expensive proposition for me. Not necessarily best kind of pr.

[rcarr]

I have a Simrad WP30, and it is fairly easy to take apart. There are two simrad distributors in the U.S. One in Florida tel # 954-922-7700, and the other in Washington tel # 425-778-8821. I have talked with the one in WA, and they sold me parts and explained how to replace the belt. R Carr

[RichardElliott]

I also talked with Simrad in WA and they will be happy to sell me the belt. The problem is that they will not supply the belt for free under warranty. I must send them the entire autopilot.

[WHOOSH]

Richard, it was discouraging to me to read your posts. We originally installed a WP30 on our boat - or tried to - but kept finding that the molded parts were cast improperly and didn''t fit the Edson pedestal. The best the factory folks could do was send new mounts from the same pile of poorly cast parts.

We then began experiencing electrical intermittant signals from the keypad (damn near hit a nav aid piling on the ICW with that one), and as another post mentions I got quite good at taking everything apart, cleaning (alcohol) and reassembling until I could get the whole unit sent off for a warranty repair. At the time all of this was unfolding, Simrad had gobbled up Navico for their small-a/p product line and the snotty performance of the people and woeful factory support was, I thought, just a sign of the corporate consolidation and ''churn'' that can occur within an organization during such a change.

We never regained confidence in that product and, even today, it sits under the V-berth up forward as a ''last ditch'' spare part in case we have a problem with our ST4000+ Raymarine a/p, which has been outstanding. But seeing your post tells me that little has changed insofar as customer-friendly policy at Simrad.

Jack

[RichardElliott]

Whoosh: Thanks for your comments. I had the impression in British Columbia that I could have found a Raytheon belt most anywhere.

[Tszlucha]

Originally Posted by rcarr

I have a Simrad WP30, and it is fairly easy to take apart. There are two simrad distributors in the U.S. One in Florida tel # 954-922-7700, and the other in Washington tel # 425-778-8821. I have talked with the one in WA, and they sold me parts and explained how to replace the belt. R Carr

You mentioned that the WP30 is easy to take apart. Can you get me started? I have some kind of mechanical problem that seems more like stripped gears than a broken belt. Thanks for your help.

[rcarr]

The face of the WP30 wheelpilot is held in place by screws in the back of the unit. These screws attach to small rollers on which the unit turns. If you loosen the screws to much the roller will come off, but can be put back on.

According to the Simard web site, the Simrad wheelpilots are now own and supported by a company called Simrad Yacthing. Their web site is www.simradyachting.com/default.aspx



Good Luck

Rodger

[Sasha_V]

The first thing I did when we got the wheel-pilot home. Before we put it on the boat is to take it apart and work out how to replace belts and such. I then took the fresh new belt I pulled out and took it down to the local industrial drive belt maker. And I got them to make up five matching belts in reinforced new materials that are considerably stronger then the basic rubber stuff that Simrad supplies.

Then I mounted one of the new belts back ont he unit before fitting it to the boat. The Simrad belt gets to sit ina drawer as a guide for the next time I need the factory to make me some new belts.
I am already wishing I had bit the bullet and ordered 8.

Never had a problem and the belts cost me around $35AUD each (that works out to about $23US each).

I was still on the first belt three years alater when the boat went up on the hard for a major refit.

It is just a matter of understanding that NOTHING on a boat is really plug-and-play. It is all componentry, whether the brochure claims different or not.


Sasha