need help installing rudder sensor

[Doghouse]

Well I may have made a mistake in deciding to go with raymarine for the autopilot. I have had better customer support from India.

That complaint out of the way, here is my problem, and question:

Examine the pictures of the steering system below.



Raymarine wants a ball joint attached to the hub, at no more than 5 degrees from co-plainer with the rudder sensor. That would require machining an triangle to mount on the hub around the rudder post, and a 2" riser block to mount the rudder position sensor to.


My thought is, why cannot I attach the ball joint to a block and mount that on the cable. That should give me the same push/pull movement to the sensor, shouldn't it?

Thanks for the extra brain power.

[delmarrey]

I don't know what your pieces look like or if anything else goes back in this space but the possibility I see is to mount a plate to the top of the rudder post for the ball joint and run a bridge across the two sides to mount the sensor.

The cable twists when moving so attaching anything to the cable could be a problem.

A picture of your parts would help, which model do you have..................._/)

[Richhh]

Edson makes solid bronze tillers that easily 'adapt' to the installation of Raymarine Linear drives, rudder position sensors, etc. etc.
If you drill into your quadrant you can mistakenly weaken it or cause it to propagate cracks in its casting later on. With a separate bronze tiller attached to the rudder stock you isolate all the 'important stuff' to its own 'section'. in case of failure. With mounting AP stuff on a quadrant if the quadrant fails, everything fails. With a separate tiller mount for the AP if the quadrant fails you can still use the AP to steer the boat and vice versa.

hope this helps.

[S/V Elusive]

Dog - Try gorilla glue and attached a block of wood to the side of the bilge above the top plane of the quadrant. From that point you should be able to attach the rudder position sensor.

[Doghouse]

These are the parts:




The pedestal is lewmar. I would rather not drill or "modify" the quadrent if possible. The problem with attaching anything to the top is that is where the auxillary rudder attaches, and in the event of a failure of the pedestal system, I would rather not have to take the whole boat apart to attach the tiller.

[S/V Elusive]

Then put it UNDER. Oh ... and just so you know, if you were to lose the cable steering, you could use the autopilot to steer the boat (probably better than with your emergency tiller - certainly quicker; that is one of the side benefits.

Good Luck!

I have the same set up.

[Doghouse]

Thanks for the suggestions, but with the horriable customer service from raymarine, I am returning it and getting the Simrad. Simrad support was much better.

[S/V Elusive]

Yeah... unfortunately, Raymarine does seem to have a problem with their CS. I have a contact within the company, but for most folks, it is difficult dealing with them. Good luck!