What should I do for autopilot - have old Raymarine w/Type 1 pump

[codingparadox]

I'm in the process of redoing the entire electronics package on this Endeavour TrawlerCat 48 we just bought. It has (had) all original Raymarine 2007-era electronics. I've changed out for a Garmin 8612xsv chartplotter, a Garmin 943 for an engine info display (on the way, still backordered for another week), adapted the existing (crappy) transducer with the Garmin converter (which is working well enough for now, I'll haul out and swap out transducers later), have an Airmar WX220 for GPS/heading/weather, and a Vesper Cortex V1 VHF/AIS, all on an N2k network. Been throwing it all together late this week, and so far, so good.

The boat's original Raymarine autopilot system is ... not great. And the display is old enough that it doesn't show you current heading, just the "desired" heading while under way, so it's hard to track what it's even trying to do. But it certainly can't hold a course on a straight-as-an-arrow ICW route without meandering off into the shallows periodically. The original Type 1 pump is still working fine, though, and holding perfect hydraulic pressure over time, so I figure that's reusable.

Given the Garmin MFDs I've decided to go with, what are peoples' suggestions for what to do with an Autopilot system? Bump up to the latest Raymarine ACU/CCU and control unit? Will those actually play nice with the Garmin MFD? I've heard the Garmin autopilot systems are the weakest of the major manufacturers right now, but some tight integration might be nice.
But no idea if they can drive an older Raymarine reversible pump. Ideas?

[smac999]

One option is the Garmin pilot retrofit kit and you can use the type 1 pump and raymarine rudder feedback (feedback required if don’t have one now). With the Garmin pilot ecu. (You must buy the retro ecu, not the normal one). You also need to by the drive and feedback cables As seperate add ons

https://buy.garmin.com/en-US/US/p/599839


Or new simrad or raymarine pilot will drive that pump normally. And talk to the Garmins.

[codingparadox]

Looked into this solution. Looks really not that bad! $2050 for the Reactor 40 hydraulic retrofit kit, a couple 10-20$ cables for the drive adapter and rudder feedback sensor, and in theory we're off to the races.

What I don't really know about is efficacy of the Garmin system vs. Simrad or a newer Raymarine system (though my experience on both this and our last boat was that the Raymarine system, not being integrated with the chartplotter course, has a really hard time holding the center of a channel.)