Autopilot turns wheel but does not turn motor.

[garrymny]

Hi all, hoping to get some feedback on this weird issue. I installed a lowrance outboard autopilot on my 1982 Grady. The autopilot drives the steering wheel, but motor barely moves, if at all. If I hold the wheel, the autopilot drives the motor just fine. So I installed a lock for the wheel and I am anxious to try it on the water. I spent 3 days bleeding the air and I finally got the air out. I think it is something to do with the my helm pump. The fluid is taking the path of least resistance. Can't read the decal very well but I do make out that it says teleflex, and on the cylinder it says marketed by teleflex. I think it may say syten but the letter t is a funny font . Any ideas will be greatly appreciated. I don't mind locking the wheel, just want to know what is going on, and that nothing is amiss. Thanks in advance.

 

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[Andre wallyandre]

Have you done the commissioning part of the installation?

[Frogger]

Gary, I'm sure someone is going to chime in on what's causing that. Not sure if you have either the lines crossed or the helm is not working correctly. I would call teleflex. You shouldn't see the steering wheel move from the auto pump. I assume you have the 2 lines from the pump teed into the 2 lines from the helm with a third line coming from the pump straight to the helm?


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[dawg]

There is a 3rd hose to hook up relief line the clear hose did you pull plug on helm and hook up the clear hose back to pump


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[garrymny]

Yes, connected the return line and both pressure lines. Checked and triple checked the connection. According to the auto pilot drawing, I connected the starboard hose to the helm fitting marked "R" and the port hose to the helm fitting marked "L". Even if I had them wrong, I believe the commissioning procedure will account for it. Yes I did that procedure many times. The hds 7 gen 3 software would not allow power steering function to work until you did commissioning. This is a glitch in their version 5, because you need to be able to do power steering for the bleeding, before you can do proper commissioning. But that's another topic.

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[garrymny]

UPDATE- Tried out the new Lowrance  autopilot today. Worked perfectly. I did have to lock my steering wheel, but that is ok with me, I can live with that. Must be something about my old helm pump.