My autopilot is acting up and I was hoping for some troubleshooting from the brain-trust. On a recent trip from Houston to 2L0, the autopilot was working well and holding altitude. About 20 minutes into the flight the breaker popped. I re-set it and it popped again. I hand flew the remaining leg of the trip. I thought there was an issue with a new PTT installed maybe arching near the trim switch. I had that checked and no problem.
A few days later I flew to KLCH and AP worked fine including the altitude hold with a little bobbing up and down (maybe 50 feet in each direction). Today, on an instrument currency ride the roll and pitch worked fine but the altitude hold would not work at all. The annunciator showed that FD, NAV, and ALT were all coupled. FD and NAV worked great but the Altitude hold would not lock in and hold altitude. There was no auto trim working at all and when i tried to hand trim the plane it seemed as though the trim wheel was locked (trimming from the yoke worked fine but obviously cancelled the AP.)
Anyone else experience this problem? Troubleshooting thoughts?
Thanks