OK, be patient because I'm sitting in a hotel room in Ohio about 2,000 miles from my boat, but...there are 2 buttons on the control module. One is "set" and I forget the other one. You have push the other one first and wait a few seconds or so to make sure the compass has captured your heading before you then push "set" and engage the clutch. The only reason I'm mentioning this is that a few times when I have not pushed the first button first, the compass doesn't get where we're going and steers a wild course (usually the last course that it remembers). Hope your problem is something this simple.

Mike

Al,
The ST 4000+ will work, and I have to admit, ends up steering the boat more than I do.

There are many threads in the archives about the "Catalina Cocktail" which are the proper values for the dealer set up of the ST 4000+

The first thing that I would do, however, is watch the magnetic compass heading in "standby" mode. It should track the Binnacle compass heading to about +/- 10 degrees before the autopilot compass has been calibrated. make a few slow circles to check. If it is not tracking the binnacle compass, then you still have a problem with the fluxgate compass. Also, make sure your steering cables are tight.

If the compass tracks, and your steering cables are tight, follow the manual, enter the "Catalina Cocktail" settings, calibrate the compass, and you should be all set.

I originated what ended up being a long thread on set-up of the ST4000+ on the old forum. Below I have copied the resulting summary 'cocktail'.

"Posted Thu January 25 2007 06:38 PM
A question just posed on the forum reminded me that I should update this thread that I started as I can now give my experience thhis past summer.

I used the setting that Chuck Parker recommended.

Set Rudder gain to 2
Set Response to 2
Set Auto trim to 3
Set Drive type to 2

I had also independently come to the same conclusion on the first 3 factors. I had never considered setting Drive type to 2 as this is hydraulic steering - however Chuck suggested it and Corvus 2116 confirmed it so I tried it and it works much better. You still have to steer in significant waves on a broad reach or downwind but things are better then they were.

I would still think of installing a rudder reference unit - but that is for the future and is not so important to me now.

If you have the ST4000+ manual pg 106 and 107 tell you how to make changes to the Dealer Setup. If you make the changes in Dealer Setup the changes are permanent until you decide to change them.

A second edit - with drive type 2 (hydraulic steering) the auto pilot is more active - so you will use some more power and will no doubt wear the drive belt out faster - however I have not had resulting problems so far and I did make several 60/70 nmile passages in the 8 weeks we were cruising this summer."

The old thread has 41 posts - there was a lot of interest and ideas so you may want to look at it - don't know if the following link will work - but here it is:
[url]http://catalina36.org/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/1686056212/m/4161017001?r=41610...