Axius repair on used boat Cobalt 303

[silver_power]

Hello from Greece.
I just bought a used 2010 Cobalt 303 with 2x377mags axius. The boat is in very good condition and engines-drives as well but I have a problem. The boat was equipped with vesselview,axius system and skyhook. But something happened and previous owner bypassed axius and changed the axius power steering actuator of the drives with normal and tie bar connected the drives.
The joystick and skyhook remote have lights etc and when I press the buttons on skyhook, I hear a beep at the engines....
I just want to make axius work again......can you please help me find the parts I might need and if you can think what made the previous owner to bypass it??
I can not take any information from previous owner,since he told me that the axius work!!!!!!!!!! .........but there is no axius steering.......
Any information will be very usefully!!!
Thank you in advance..

 

[alldodge]

It came with axius but was removed, and now has a tie bar between drives

ok, lets start with a serial number and what parts remain from original axius?

 

[silver_power]

The serial of the engines are: 1A605670 and 1A437598.
For now, i know that the joystick, skyhook panel are placed in dash, and they are connected to power.....i mean that when i start the engines, skyhook panel leds are RED and when i push buttons, there is a beep coming from the engine area.......
The vesselview also seems to work fine.....
I do not know if vesselview is somehow related to axius system.....i just mention that....

 

[alldodge]

I have never worked on axius, just looking at parts that make up the system. Don't know if @muc has worked on one of these or @Fun Times
https://www.mercruiserparts.com/350-mag-mpi-alpha-bravo-1a611928-thru

Showing several components such as high pressure pump, filter and hoses
Manual
https://www.mercurymarine.com/en/us...ring/axius-joystick-piloting-for-sterndrives/

 

[silver_power]

I will go to the boat and check which parts are still remain.....I hope harness and axius ecu and sensors are there...

 

[paulswagelock]

The Axius system requires dealer programming to set up. This is unlikely to be a user repair without dealer involvement.

 

[silver_power]

Well.....I checked what is inside the boat...
Firstly I was wrong concerning the engines serials. The real are: 1A605669 and 1A605670. The 1A437598 is the transom serial of the 1st engine....
Both pcm555 are labelled as " 6.2 Bravo DTS Axius HPR" 8M2015889 & 8M0031299. The port engine has the axius steering pump, hoses, high pressure filter and oil bottle. The port engine do not have these....as they are changed with the non axius components. Port engine has non axius power steering actuator with cable and a tie bar connects the two drives to make the boat steer.Obviously something happened and the first owner of the boat made the boat "non axius". Both engines do not have axius steering actuator (the port has the classic power steering actuator)
Both engines have a disconnected 14pin connector with a label "TVM" which is coming from the main harness.
The boat has skyhook pad,vesselview, joystick, axius ecu , GPS 300antenna at the bow.....
And I must say that these components are power connected as when I pushed skyhook buttons I see the yellow and red lights on and beep conning from engines. Something else I noticed is that when I press the dock mode, and move the joystick, I can hear the throttle body move (with engine stop)...
So I believe the system basically want to work.....
In addition,from what I already find at internet,2010 models have not the problems of 2008&2009 axius systems which a software update needed....
Basically I hoped that I had axius 2 but I do not think so.......according to serial it is gen1.....
I have bought already 2 axius steering pumps, the hoses, two high pressure filters, coolers hoses etc so both engines to have the same hardware and a helm actuator as well. But I can not figure out what axius steering actuators must find....
Obviously I have the GEN1 axius,but there are two models: 1. Steering actuator w/sensors screw in and 2. Steering actuator w/e-clip -end cap. Both are for GEN1.
Can you make a guess of what may happened and the previous owner changer all these hardware and disabled axius?
What steering actuator must find for my application??
Every information is appreciated and helpful.
Thank you in advance.

 

[Fun Times]

Do you have a local Mercruiser dealer that might be able to help you look up Service Bulletin # SMC-09-06 to see what it may say regarding the port side Axius (Gen I), CYLINDER-STEERING MERCRUISER - BRAVO ONE - Steering Actuator, Axius (Gen I), Sensors Screw In..., Or MERCRUISER - BRAVO ONE - Steering Actuator, Axius (Gen I), Sensors w/ E-Clip/End Cap superseded part number 8M0057416 which seems to cover both now seen here under item number 1 when clicked on, https://www.perfprotech.com/mercury...ensors-screw-in/assembly/11210/215?model=1016

Seems the Axius (Gen I) part may be unavailable but I'm unsure what the bulletin has to say without a Merc dealer looking it up...Might be regarding the superseded parts cross referencing to fit... But at $10K US dollars, Might be a reason they went to the older/original style actuator.

Also I noticed there are 2 different part numbers for the steering arm that bolts to the Transom assembly item number 14, https://www.perfprotech.com/mercury...d-steering-lever/assembly/11210/70?model=1016 VS https://www.perfprotech.com/mercury...ever-axius-gen-i/assembly/11210/75?model=1016
Wonder if that was changed out too. I just got out of the professional side of Mercruiser service repair as the axius system was coming about so I'm not much help with this system but paulswagelock is right in post # 6 that usually dealer programming to set up is needed with most of these DTS computer command systems so the helm and engine can talk to each other basically speaking...That mentioned, you have a nice boat there silver_power.

MERCRUISER : BRAVO ONE : 0W250000 & Up | PerfProTech.com

Online shopping for MERCRUISER : BRAVO ONE : 0W250000 & Up Parts & Accessories

www.perfprotech.com

1A605669 and 1A605670 ='s MERCRUISER AX 377 RWC B 1.7R 6.2L MPI DTS
1A437598 ='s MERCRUISER AXIUS SMARTCRAFT TRANS W/ENG BRAVO TRANSOM.

 

[silver_power]

I found an axius GEN 1 actuator cylinder of 496. Is it compatible to 377?
I think that TVM are irelative to the engines...there is only GEN1 &2 for gasoline and diesel applications....am I correct??

 

[silver_power]

For example...I found the part: 8M2016466 (8M057416 new), port axius gen1 actuator, from 496 H.O. Is it compatible to 377mag??

 

[Fun Times]

For example...I found the part: 8M2016466 (8M057416 new), port axius gen1 actuator, from 496 H.O. Is it compatible to 377mag??

Yes it would be compatible because in this case the 2 engine sizes utilize a Bravo model stern drive..., https://www.perfprotech.com/mercury-marine-parts-catalog/model/04/6030/BRAVO ONE/0w250000-up

It appears you may need to make sure item number 18 is still installed on the ?engine?
Check both engines for comparison notes, https://www.perfprotech.com/mercury...ensors-screw-in/assembly/11210/215?model=1016

 

[silver_power]

The TVM (item 18) is not currently installed. They took it off with the actuators. Besides, I think that it comes with the actuator installed....
The actuator I found from 496, has the TVM on the back with the bracket.
So, I think as they are rare, I will buy it and I hope to find a starboard actuator as well....

 

[silver_power]

I am coming back after a lot of try to make axius work on my boat.... Last summer I used it with the classic steering cable. My mechanic can not make it work after all tries he made. The starboard engine is fine with the axius and the steering actuator works fine after calibration, vessel personality import etc...but the port does not work. The faults G3 scanned are pressure related...(Pressure low range, Low pump pressure, Sensor pressure low range etc). We installed the port actuator ti the starboard engine to check if something is wrong with the actuator it self. It worked fine to the starboard engine. So we are sure that theactuator is fine and took it back to the port engine. We changed the steering pump from starboard to port.....nothing changed. We changed the filter....nothing, the hoses and cooler....nothing again. We changed the harness connection of the engines at smart junction box, nothing. We worked the engine about 5mins with G3 live data reading and the pump pressure from 0psi started to get pressure 150-200psi....something like that...., the active faults cleared but the actuator nothing. After about 1-2minutes the pump pressure dropped to 0 again (live data).and the same faults came. During this time, we were turning the helm actuator left and right trying to make this work.....after about 10minutes of this procedure the pump pressure reading was dropped to zero 2-3 times and the raise again.....
So, the steering actuator is OK and work fine when installed at starboard engine, but when it is at the port engine with all the starboard hardware (pump, hosses, filter, cooler etc), it does not work. So nothing else remain to the engine harness.....something is wrong with it and that is why the pump pressure reading goes from 0 to 200psi and after 2-3min to 0 again.....Besides, during live data reading, there was two voltage readings. The one was the system's (ex: 13.7v) but the other was only 0,49-0.50v. According to my experience with diacom and sensors reading and diagnostic, there is nothing related to 0,5v but 5VDc . So this something that today came in my mind is maybe the 5V voltage for the actuator sensors somewhere is interrupted or there is a ground problem....
I am trying to find the TVM wiring to find the 5V pin and ground pins but I cannot find it....
Do you have an idea of what else may I try????
Thank you very much in advance...

 

[alldodge]

No clue on my side, but pressure going from 200 to near zero like it runs out of fluid.

 

[silver_power]

No clue on my side, but pressure going from 200 to near zero like it runs out of fluid.

No no....the bottle was full of fluid....
Something electrical is going to make me crazy....
I am begging for a tvm gen1 wiring diagram.......

 

[alldodge]

Only one that "might" have an idea is @muc

 

[muc]

I took a quick look, this boat has a history of issues and a lot of service bulletins. Is your mechanic aware of all this history? It looks like "white glove" might not have been completed? And that S.B. has been revised 2 times since the last record of service. Did your mechanic change the city i.d. on the TVM and load the correct software to them when they were swapping the cylinders? Different software for port and starboard TVMs.

To be much help to you (and Axius wasn't something I worked on in the field much, so I'm not sure how much help I can offer) I would need to get much better information then -----
"The one was the system's (ex: 13.7v) but the other was only 0,49-0.50v."
------ what exactly is the "other"?

8M0098996 - SM #53 AXIUS GEN 1 AND GEN 2 is the manual with the wiring diagram. Your tech will have access to it and can get you a copy if you want.

Out of time for now, I'll try to revisit this later.

 

[silver_power]

I hope he knows what he is doing......he is mercruiser certified here in Greece and this is all I know....
When he scans the boats ecu's all are green online and have the last update. G3 sais that they have the latest firmware.
When he swap the tvm cylinders, he just plugged the port actuator to starboard side to see only if the actuator is functional and if the cylinder is moving to reject the possibility of a tvm actuator failure. He did not change the city id's for this test. When we saw the actuator movement as we rotated the helm actuator, we said that the actuator is functional and somewhere else is the problem.
I told him to make a refresh with the white glove but he said that there is no latest software to install that this is already installed. Otherwise the G3 would tell to update. These are his words and I do not know if this is true and if he is right.....so I can not insist. You think that if the glove box refresh has to be done, the G3 would not tell to do so?.....
Concerning the "other voltage" of 0.5v, Tuesday that we will rescan the live data with G3, I will see what exactly is and IF has the same value at the starboard engine which works fine......
I will ask him if he has access to service manual #53.....
I really do not know what else to check.....

 

[silver_power]

Does anybody have the pcm555 (14pin harness) pin out of the 3 pcm's connectors??

 

[silver_power]

I took a quick look, this boat has a history of issues and a lot of service bulletins. Is your mechanic aware of all this history? It looks like "white glove" might not have been completed? And that S.B. has been revised 2 times since the last record of service.