My autohelm stopped working on the weekend. I've had the boat for a couple of months now, and the Simrad TP32 came with the boat. Never used one before, but didn't take long to fall in love with it, so I'm very disappointed! Just wondering if anyone has experiences that might help me because Simrad aren't interested in repairing - but will happily charge me almost full retail to replace it! Normally I only use it for holding a course and for small course changes, but I tried to auto-tack on the weekend and it wouldn't do it, and since then it hasn't worked. Won't even adjust the length of the rod while in standby (ie motor shows no sign of operating).
Any tips on repair or resetting? Can the motor be easily replaced?
The motor can be replaced and is nothing specials a mate says.
Try an electronics shop maybe Jaycar.
Google is your friend. I bought a few motors and gears for my Raymarine autopilot. From Raymarine they were lots but they were about 10 bucks from an electronics spot online.
I looked really carefully on the motor and it had a code I searched for. It all went well and works fine.
I bought this
www.parts-express.com/Mabuchi-Type-Motor-RS-555SH-12V-DC-Motor-9-15V-57mm-x-36mm-125-566?fbclid=IwAR2Ys94jwv1uB9O0cE4wzJnd-lUjLY6FPkaX1kg6IuSGhpGRJ7i06fKlUq4
I used this page as a reference
forums.sailboatowners.com/threads/a18086-st4000-drive-motor-replacement.196246/page-2
Some pretty smart cookies on this forum, so a precise description of what happens might help someone to give you a closer diagnosis.
And fwiw, "any old motor" is questionable advice. There are many variations of size, speed, torque etc. A variant of the Mabuchi RS555 is used in Raymarine ST2000's, but I'm not sure about the TP32.
I had one on MB. Bought in 2009 and I sold the boat with it last year.
it was dropped, stood on, sat on and buried under tonnes of sea water on a number of significant ocean passages.
it worked brilliantly all the time. I replaced the drive belt once because it sounded a bit noisy although it made no difference. It kept working.
Taking it apart is simple, getting the parts might not be now.
Thanks guys. That's really helpful. I'm going to the boat today to check terminals and try a reset. If that doesn't work I'll pull it apart. I have a suspicion the motor might have cooked when something got in the way of the tiller, connections are dodgy, or I pressed the wrong buttons while trying autotack and confused the PCB.
It is very unlikely be due to "something getting in the way of the tiller" as all the Simrad TP's have stall protection. The Raymarines ST's don't, which is why they strip gears burnout etc etc fairly commonly. Crook connections (including the fixed boat wiring to the cockpit socket) are "low-hanging fruit" to check. Also measure voltage at the socket when stroking under load.
Cheers, Graeme
Select to expand quotealanfw said..
Reset worked! 
Excellent. My boat got accidentally gybed in Pittwater due to a wind sheer. I tried to disconnect the pilot and ended up with it at maximum strain such it bent the pin in the tiller.
Didn't affect it.
