It is a Comnav autopilot with Octopus pumpmotors (Canadian system) and currently we have been running on a pumpmotor that was rebuilt back home in Sweden. According to the workshop at home "everything necessary has been replaced and it´s almost as new"

Now with only 400hrs on it it was leaking. The old pumpmotor has 2.800hrs on but was working well when replaced.

My first attempt was to switch back to the old pumpmotor but when tested this one was now leaking as well. Thinking it could be the connections of the piping I replaced all pipes and added Loctite sealant, but still leaking.

The major concern is that a leaking pumpmotor is the weakest point of the whole hydraulic steering system. If the leak cannot be fixed,all valves to the primary autopilot pumpmotor has to be closed or hydraulic fluid will leak from the whole system risking the steering.

If so,you will loose not only the primary autopilot but also the manual powersteering. Switching over to secondary autopilot you will have autopilot steering but NO manual power steering,only power steering from the autopilot.

All in all,to get it fixed was of high priority. From fellow cruisers we got recommendations and finally could hand over both pumpmotors to Gilson,who is the one serving the cruising fleet with autopilot problems . bringing both pumps to his workshop he found the lipseal smashed on both pumps (obviously never replaced during rebuild ). Not having original spareparts he still amaged to replace the seals and now both pumpmotors are working.

In hindsight why not buy a new pumpmotor for an Atlantic crossing. That would obviously have been the right thing to do.

Back then standing with a pumpmotor rebuilt for 300Eu it´s not so obvious. You believe what you are told and happily reinstall what you think is a fully refurbished part. It highlights what "rebuilt" as well as "refurbish" means. My experience is starting to become bad on that subject