Wheeldrive pedestal mounting

[Eugene323]

I have found the Simrad WP-30 mounting bracket from my old autopilot to be compatible with the Raymarine wheel pilot by replacing the original Simrad stainless pins and adding an Aluminum pin that is turned down at the end to match the dimension of the supplied Raymarine wheel locating holes- This allows installation without drilling additional Raymarine bracket holes in the Edson pedestal for the Raymarine bracket. The motor lies nice and low away from the binnacle compass with the pin engaging the second manufactured reinforced [censored]. The Simrad WP30 bracket originally had two stout stainless steel pins that supported the whole WP30 assembly-

If I wanted to make another pair of holes that corresponded with two aluminum pins located in the Simrad bracket for an even better motor location relative to my transmission lever- do you think 'splitting the load' with two pins and two new un reinforced holes would be satisfactory?

It is true the setup must be accurate to insure both pins take up the load simultaneously- that is something I believe I can achieve-

What do you think? I have tested the function of the one aluminum pin and its action through the wheel's revolution. The offset has no alignment issues. I believe two pins would also run true.

Secondly has anyone ever has success in a backing plate to reinforce a new [censored] location in the plastic wheel? It could be a bonded plastic plate or an aluminum plate screwed to the plastic housing-

Thanks.