Tomcat 255 Garmin reactor 40 reactor trouble shoot

joechiro30

I installed the garmin reactor 40 on my twin 175 suzuki tomcat 255. The heading computer is in the middle on the wall under the berth at the center. Seatrial wizard went fine and auto pilot was working great for about 20 hours. I noticed that my steering was not working at 100 percent like it felt like there was some air in it. After a long cruise the autopilot heading shut off and the GHC 20 doesn't read the heading from the computer. Called the garmin support and they said that air in the hydraulic system could cause my AP to shut down and when I tried to re calibrate using the dealer mode. The seatrial wizard won't allow me to finish the 1.5 turn to calibrate the AP. I bled my hydraulics and will try to sea trial it again.
I have had issues with air in my steering even after buying a new unit. Sea star. Every time I reverse it seems to do unlock air or something. I don't know but my steering has had issues every time I reverse hard. So I try not to reverse hard if possible. Has anyone had issues like this with your AP on your tomcat. Any tips and advice would be appreciated. I've been spoiled with the AP and I don't want to do any long cruises without it.
Thanks
Joe

Forgot to mention that my lock to lock test failed but I was able to bypass that test the first time. I can't seem to get the lock to lock test to pass and work properly even after bleeding the system over and over again.

thataway · Posted: Thu Aug 18, 2022 10:33 pm Post subject:

Joe, I didn't have an auto pilot--but the first time in my Tom Cat 255, I did a very hard reverse, and blew the helm pump. There is something, in the way that the hydraulics (and probably the "liquid Tie Bar" causes increased pressure in the hydraulic system. I never figured out what exactly was happening, but avoided backing down hard.....

I am not sure how that relates to your auto pilot, but the hard reverse was an issue unrelated to the AP.

colbysmith · Posted: Thu Aug 18, 2022 10:56 pm Post subject:

Joe, the lock to lock test on both my CD-22, and my CD-25 both failed. For some reason, once the autopilot reaches "hard over", it can't apply the pressure to release the steering. However, it otherwise worked. I had some problems earlier, but it was due to having two of the regular SeaStar helms, and hydraulic bleed through the over pressure valves. I fixed that with hydraulic shut off valves at the cockpit helm. I also recently had some issues with my garmin chartplotter giving me a "lost heading sensor" message. Since the chart plotter gets it's heading from the Reactor 40 when it's on, along with the autopilot, the autopilot wasn't working properly then either. In my situation, I think it was just corrosion or loose NMEA 2000 cabling. Once I cleaned and tightened the connections, that problem went away. Not sure if any of this helps with your TomCat problems, but thought I'd share anyway. BTW, earlier I looked to Garmin for help with the lost heading sensor, and they told me the same thing about air in the hydraulic hoses. I usually have pretty good customer service from them, but think they were out to lunch on that response... Colby

joechiro30 · Posted: Thu Aug 18, 2022 11:39 pm Post subject:

Thanks for guys inputs I appreciate them. I did the air in system test and the reactor 40 tested no air in my systems. Yes Bob hard reverse caused a problem for me too. I just reversed a little bit and I think that revealed some air in my system. Don’t know at this point. Going to sea trial and see if I can get it working again.

joechiro30 · Posted: Fri Aug 19, 2022 1:16 am Post subject:

Thanks for guys inputs I appreciate them. I did the air in system test and the reactor 40 tested no air in my systems. Yes Bob hard reverse caused a problem for me too. I just reversed a little bit and I think that revealed some air in my system. Don’t know at this point. Going to sea trial and see if I can get it working again.