Thanks for the contact, that may accelerate things. I am in touch with Lewmar US and they are responsive but very slow. No part number for the splined end fittings yet.
Prior to the failure we heard some bangs. Actually I was under the assumption that the upper bevel head may have failed. When I went to manual steering I felt some slippage at the helm. It took about 30 minutes until the steering failed completely. Condition were pretty rough with 20+kts and confused seas in the GS. After math revealed that the connection steering shaft, coming from the reduction gearbox, to universal joint had failed. In attached picture when the steering wheel was turned the yellow rod followed, while the blue one did not. Just wiggled a little bit. When I looked at the universal/shaft connection, I noticed that the end fittings are not completely overlapping with the joint thread. Off by 1/4 inch. I had the universal joints replaced at our last boatyard stay, and now wonder if they shaft was not correctly aligned, which may have caused our problem.
