Italian to English Tech/Engineering Slang

From a letter talking about problems with a ship:

"... era incattivato un braccetto meccanico dell'asservimento sulla macchina del timone."

I have looked up individual terms but not sure if what i have written makes sense when I put them together:

"a mechanical arm of the interlocking on the steering gear had gone wrong"

does this make sense? "mechanical arm OF the INTERLOCKING ON the steering gear"??

Thanks!