Lewmar / Garmin autopilot issue

[GVB]

Looking for a solution... other than throwing the lot out & replacing.  I have a Lewmar 89300180-B Integra autopilot drive & clutch unit that is blowing the 5amp fuse leading to the power connection.

Configuration is clutch pos & neg to relay then relay to battery via 5 amp fuse. All controlled by Garmin ghp12 ecu via same relay.

At 1st thought it was the clutch shorting as the drive was working but autopilot not engaging. Dismantled drive unit and tested independently on bench connecting directly to a battery. The Drive works and clutch engages.

Dismantled and checked Garmin ECU all seems ok.
Checked all wiring & connections ok.
Replaced relay with new.

The yacht is a Vision 42 2013. The autopilot has been working fine in the current configuration for 7 years.

Any constructive ideas would be appreciated.

[Yngmar]

At 1st thought it was the clutch shorting as the drive was working but autopilot not engaging. Dismantled drive unit and tested independently on bench connecting directly to a battery. The Drive works and clutch engages.

And how many amps did you measure with the clutch engaged and the drive turning?

How hard does your steering go?

[GVB]

Clutch Fuse blows as soon as engaged.. However works when connected direct to battery without inline fuse. Seems all indicators are pointing to faulty clutch after all. Now how to get clutch out of the motor housing....

[GVB]

Forgot to mention ...Motor portion works fine and has its own 40 amp fuse.

[Hobbit2]

Hi,
I would suspect clutch starts to turn bad. When mine quit at the end it blew the 5 Amp fuse as well. That said i so far thought that the clutch dying would be digital 1 or zero behaviour  I somehow recall having read to measure resistance of clutch for fault finding.

Good luck!

[Club 56]

Hi GVB
Same Bavaria model and exactly the same problem last year. We are based in Australia.
After investigation decided to replace whole drive unit.
Have kept the old one and intend to just buy the clutch part and have a spare complete unit on board.
There are older threads on this site regarding this so have a look at them.

It’s an issue that must happen regularly as in speaking to the Australian Lewmar agent they keep this drive unit in stock in Australia. Used not only in Bavaria boats.

Good luck.