"DRIVESTOP" Have you ever seen this on your Autopilot Controller?
Here is the whole Raymarine Linear Drive Type 2 laid before you ready for repair and cleaning!


Well after 9 1/2 years of use my Raymarine Linear Drive Type 2 stopped dead and displayed
"DRIVESTOP".
Problem is most likely CARBON FOULING OF THE BRUSHES AND COMMUTATOR of the LINEAR ELECTRIC DC DRIVE MOTOR!!! You likely can repair your own unit w/o spending the $600.00 bucks Raymarine charges....It is fairly simple. Here is my experience with Pictures to assist.
MiVida has logged over 1000 hours of use on this Raymarine autopilot w/o problem over 9.5 years! Sailing on the Pacific from SF to San Diego, up to Bodega Bay, out to the Farallon Islands and all over SF Bay and the Sacramento and Napa River Deltas....over 1000 hours of autopilot use which was flawless. Until last week when the Linear Drive stopped working!
Interesting that I could make the linear drive move if I 'jiggled' the helm after giving a command to change course. But the drive would not function to keep on course.
Also I (when in port) went below with my remote and gave command to change course (10degrees) and then tapped the drive unit with a rubber mallet with the unit giving proper response of the linear drive.
Thus I deduced that the drive was malfunctioning. Not the clutch as I could hear it engage and disengage when placed in 'auto' and returned to 'standby'.
So I checked with Raymarine and found they wanted $600.00 to look at the unit and repair. A new unit costs over $1600.00. Thus I decided to take the Linear Drive Type 2 to my home shop and open it up for diagnosis and hopefully, repair and restoration by my hands. Before doing that I searched the web for info, discussed with my good friends at Farallone Yachts (Roger and Dina Goodsell) and my sailing friend attorney and civil engineer Jim.
It seems that after years of use the Linear Drive motors of the Raymarine Type 2 units build up a lot of loose carbon on the burshes and commutator which inhibits the functioning of this stepper motor.
I cleaned the whole unit, blew all the carbon dust from the disassembled motor, cleaned the brushes (only about 50% worn) and reassembled the whole unit....
Reinstalled and now all is functioning normally....saved $600.00 bucks for a job that needed only compressed air, electrical device cleaner and the tools and shop to carefully disassemble and reassemble the unit!
BTW: I wanted to install new brushes...but could not (to date) find any listed with Raymarine....will try again this week by phone....(need to have spares when the 50% used brushed bite the dust)!
I have checked Raymarine Q&A and no mention is made of this carbon build-up problem (although on the web search there are a few mentions of same...and one mention of this problem on a thread on this discussion board too. You can use the search fx ... look for "Aging autopilot drive" there is a good response from Colin there posted on this issue).
Attached I post pics of the dissassembly of the unit for all to see what is in this little box! (Pics are always better than words!)
Here are the progression pics of opening the unit and exposing the motor etc.
To get inside the unit remove
1.) the two hexhead set screws pictured in the second frame
2.) the two brass hex posts in the aluminum plate to which the motor is attached
3.) the hex head screws in the aluminum plate to which the motor is attached.
4.) the hex head screws which hold the motor to the plate
5.) the flat head screws which hold the motor together
Look closely at the blow up pictures below and you can see the motor brushes and all the screws and linear drive component hardware laid out on the bench. CLICK on the PICs for BLOW UP VIEW!

Brushes 50% worn but reusable (carbon on the unit easily blown off and cleaned with electric cleaner from Radio Shack)

All components laid out for your visual inspection
Comments appreciated.
Hope this helps someone somewhere to not be stranded in a foreign port or anchorage and not face having to helm the vessel manually back to homeport or otherwise!
TomCharron
MiVida C42 #631
OYC
Gate 7
Alameda, California



















