Catalina 34

General Activities => Main Message Board => Topic started by: Jim Hardesty on June 19, 2013, 02:53:08 PM

Title: drive belt for Autohelm St4000
Post by: Jim Hardesty on June 19, 2013, 02:53:08 PM
I replaced the drive belt on my Autohelm St4000  got the belt here

http://shop.polybelt.com/Belt-for-ST4000-Autohelm-Raymarine-Autopilot-BAT750AUTOST4000.htm

The belt skips when used hard.  The old one didn't.  I noticed the cogs are not square at the end sort of m shaped where it fits into the drive pulleys.

Where have others got replacment belts that they are happy with?

Jim
Title: Re: drive belt for Autohelm St4000
Post by: Ron Hill on June 19, 2013, 05:35:34 PM
Jim : Get ahold of the Gates Belt Co and give them the # from the old belt. 

I'll bet they can help you!!  A thought
Title: Re: drive belt for Autohelm St4000
Post by: SailingJerry on June 26, 2013, 04:23:55 PM
Jim, I replaced my belt this spring fromPolytech and it works great. One thing I noticed was that one of my rollers was frozen. Here is the address for the autohelm service manual. Hope it helps.   http://www.ganssle.com/jack/st4000.pdf
Jerry
Title: Re: drive belt for Autohelm St4000
Post by: Jim Hardesty on June 26, 2013, 07:27:53 PM
I changed back to my old belt.  It looked OK but I have 5 seasons on it (don't know if the PO ever change it) and I use it a lot.  Well my old belt doesn't slip.  After doing some searching here I see that the belt tension is adjustable and having too much or too little will cause the belt to slip.  It did seem a little tighter.  So I don't think that anything was wrong with the new belt.  Now that I have a new belt and see how simple it is to change I'll just keep using the old belt till it shows a problem.
FWIW   I have tongue depressors (from a craft store) that I use as mixing sticks.  They worked well to gently pry the halfs of the autopilot apart.
Thanks for the replies.
Jim