35-2 under-deck autopilot guidance needed

Fellow Viking's,
Blue Chip arrived in our possession 10y ago with an already old Raymarine ST4000 wheel pilot. This AP has finally died and despite trolling the forums and trying several 'fixes' I don't think she can be rescued. I have had my eye on the Raymarine EV-200 underdeck linear drive AP but I can't get my head around it's install. It seems that the rudder's stop to stop angle of ~120 deg is way too much for the 60 deg quoted in the manual. Am I overlooking something obvious? Can you let me know what you have managed to install on your 35-2 and even better send a pic or two?

All and any help is appreciated.

Thanks
Rob

(The southernmost E35)

Large stop angles are not uncommon compared to what the AP drive will allow. You will need to limit the rudder angle to that of the AP drive if you want to protect the linear drive from damage due to an inadvertent manual attempt at steering the boat. I have two acquaintances that have bent hydraulic cylinder rods due to overdrive of the rudder angle in urgent attempts to take manual control. Something as simple as a piece of dynema can be fashioned to make a limiter for the rudder.

Regards,

Brian

s/v RedSky.

robjpowell said:

Fellow Viking's,
Blue Chip arrived in our possession 10y ago with an already old Raymarine ST4000 wheel pilot. This AP has finally died and despite trolling the forums and trying several 'fixes' I don't think she can be rescued. I have had my eye on the Raymarine EV-200 underdeck linear drive AP but I can't get my head around it's install. It seems that the rudder's stop to stop angle of ~120 deg is way too much for the 60 deg quoted in the manual. Am I overlooking something obvious? Can you let me know what you have managed to install on your 35-2 and even better send a pic or two?

All and any help is appreciated.

Thanks
Rob

(The southernmost E35)

Click to expand...

My experience was that the turning radius stops down below are pretty uniform. When I put our rudder tiller on, I drilled the pivot point as required by the instructions. I say that I lightened the tiller by drilling twice, but I messed up the first time and had to move it closer to rudder post so that we had a full range of motion. Without looking back at all the technical data, I recall that the angle of turn each way was about 35 degrees. With our hydraulic throw on the linear drive, there was a specific distance from the center of the rudder post that we had to affix the pivot point. Once I got the hole placement right, it worked like a dream (except the electronics part - be VERY careful about what and where you ground. It can be critical to performance. Just ask my wife who spent the better part of the first day of the Guadalupe race on her back in the cockpit locker with a multi-meter, and a confusing connection conundrum.)

Jim McCone
Voice of Reason E-32 Hull #134
Redondo Beach, CA