Experienced an interesting autopilot event recently while offshore. The yoke that attaches the hydraulic rod to the steering quadrant came loose. The rod came un-threaded from the yoke. The control head was sending information to the ram and it was responding, it just had come loose from the yoke. I took the pin out that holds the yoke to the steering quadrant and threaded the yoke back onto the rod and snugged the locking nut and reinstalled the yoke on the quadrant. A short 3 minute fix, but quite the puzzle at first. Seems that either the yoke had only been installed with a thread or two engaged or that the hydraulic piston can rotate / back out over time if the locking / jam nut is not tight.
I recommend checking the jam nut.
By the way, just placed second in the crusing spinnaker class during Harvest Moon regatta (150 mile offshore race from Galveston to Port Aransas along the Texas coast in the Gulf of Mexico. Huge storm caused trouble for much of the fleet, but a partially reefed main and partially reefed jib proved just right.
Cheers!
Sam
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