Want To Buy: Raymarine Type 1 Linear Drive

[sailrj]

Want to Buy[/B]- Looking for a Type 1 Linear Drive for my autopilot. Prefer unit to be less than 10 years old.

[SailorHarry]

Just a heads up: you might want to consider a type 1 linear drive made under the old Autohelm banner, one perhaps 30 years old (if in otherwise good shape). No plastic parts inside and very easy to convert for use with today's course computers: simply bring out the two motor leads and the two clutch leads--that's it! I wrote an article in Good Old Boat a while back about overhauling these drives. No parts are available, except for the drive belt, which is less than ten dollars: Optibelt - Keilriemen, Zahnriemen, Antriebsriemen, Keilrippenriemen, Keilriementrieb, Kraftband. Send me a PM if you want more details. Happy sailing. SailorHarry.

[TacomaSailor]

You don't need to worry about the age of a Raymarine / Autohelm linear drive if you can examine the innards.

You do need to verify that Linear Drives more than 15 years old have their planetary drive gears converted to bronze because they originally came with plastic gears which were very easy to strip. (Personal experience 1/2 way between San Diego and Cabo San Lucas).

I have stripped and rebuilt our 1994 Linerar Drive twice - once in Dec 2001 to replace the stripped gears and again in spring 2013 to install a Type II (twice the power) motor.

Everything inside looked perfect in June 2013. The gears and drive belts looked new, there was no lash in the gear mesh and the belt teeth were all sharp and clean.

That Linear drive has 2800 motor hours on it and over 5,000 sailing miles on it.

Good luck finding a used one - as far as I can tell the new ones are just like the old ones so folks like me that recently replaced their course computer and control head just keep their old linear drives 'cause they are so solid and reliable.

[SailorHarry]

At the risk of high-jacking this thread: TacomaSailor, you are spot on about the linear drives with plastic gears. My experience is with the models previous to yours: the ones with a recirculating ball jack-screw: no gears at all and absolutely bulletproof. The drive contained the circuit boards for the "smarts" part of the autopilot (as the course computer does now, function-wise.) To convert this old design, just junk the circuit boards and bring out the two pair of wires as in my first post.

[Badsanta]

What about the gears in the rotary drive units?

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Cruisers Sailing Forum mobile app

[sv Shearwater]

I have an Autohelm Type 2 linear drive that I'd love to get rid of. If understand it correctly, the only difference is the Type 2 is a stronger drive for heavier displacement. Ours was installed on a 1998 J/120. Not sure if it was installed in 1998 or later, but before 2006 I'm sure. We bought the boat in 2011 and the drive worked then. It's been wrapped in bubble wrap in my garage ever since. The previous owner kept the boat in Lake Champlain in Vermont and raced exclusively, so you can imagine it didn't get a lot of use.

Make me an offer. It's just sitting here... Doing nothing (not collecting dust because it is wrapped in bubble wrap).

[TacomaSailor]

" If understand it correctly, the only difference is the Type 2 is a stronger drive for heavier displacement"

that is correct - I spent a lot of time last spring working with Raymarine Technical Support while upgrading my 1994 Type 1 linear drive to a type 2. The only difference is the power rating of the 12V drive motor in the drive actuator. The Type 1 is 15 amp and the Type 2 is 30 amp.

It took me about 15 minutes to take the cover off my Type 1 LD, remove the Type 1 motor, install the Type 2 motor, and reinstall the cover.

[Boatguy30]

Good info one here, maybe there is someway to move it to another part of the forum.

I once had a very old nautech unit with the circuit board and clutch was a bronze sheave setup with little brushes riding on it. I sent it to raymarine and they replaced the clutch with a newer style. Crossed the pacific no issue. Interestingly the motor developed some type of short prior to recondition that would cause the brain to put the helm hard over when a moderate load was placed on the helm. Took a long time to get that figured out!

Anyway, is there any need to worry about failure of the clutches and does anyone know if they have gone to one more or less standard clutch? I recently bought a Type 1 autohelm unit. I believe does not have any noticeable plastic gears inside, just a belt from the motor around a large I believe plastic cogged wheel that has the clutch built into it.

Is this one of the good ones? It's actually probably a bit overkill for what I'll need but found it at a good price.

[colemj]

Raymarine hasn't sold plastic gear drives for many years. If you bought one recently, it does not have plastic gears.

Mark

[SailorHarry]

If your drive has only one toothed sheave on the motor and a larger one on the jackscrew shaft, it is most probably one of the old drives, and very robust. As far as the clutches failing, we never had any problem with ours (two world cicumnavigations between 1986 and 2013) and it's still going strong.

[simonfe]

Hi, sv Shearwater Do you still have the type 2 drive available?
Thanks...