How to Install an Hour Meter on Small Gas Powered Engines, Generators, Lawn Mowers
How to Install an Hour Meter on Small Gas Powered Engines, Generators, Lawn Mowers Sharon, one of the Two Tired Teachers, shows viewers how easy it is to install an hour meter on a generator. To get started with the project, you first need to decide where you want to hour meter to be. Closer to the spark plug will be better because you have to run a tiny wire through where you drill. I used rubbing alcohol and cotton swabs to clean the area. I also cleaned the back of the meter in order to mount with the double sided tape on that. If you are reading, skip ahead two paragraphs to save yourself some of the headaches I had when mounting the hour meter. You need to remove the boot for the spark plug. Because you will be dealing with such tight quarters, I suggest you do as I did and remove the side panel too. The directions tell you to wrap the cord that comes with the meter around the spark plug wire 5 times at approximately4 centimeters from the boot. Once you've wrapped the cord around the spark plug wire, then you tighten it around with a zip tie. Remember that you don't want the zip tie to touch the engine so that when the engine is hot it won't damage the meter. Replace the boot on the spark plug. Now you are ready to drill the hole where the wire will be fed up to the meter. It's at this point, I made my mistake. I tried to feed the wire up to the meter. WRONG! I had secured the cord from the meter to the wire from the spark plug, and I had it just where I wanted it, but I wasted a lot of time trying to feed the cord up to the meter. It would have been much easier to slip the cord down to the spark plug wire. Once you have the meter and cord on the outside of the generator, you will put the cord through the channel that's on the back of the meter. I used a flat head screwdriver to be sure the cord is in there tightly and removed the protective tape from the hour meter. That leaves your meter mounted with the double sided tape that was under the protective tape. For right now, that is all I'm using to secure the meter to the generator. If I need to, I can drill holes and attach the meter with screws. With the excess cord inside the generator, fold it and use another zip tie to be sure it stays together and it won't get next to the engine. Now you are ready to see if it works. When you crank the generator and have it on, the hour indicator is flashing, and that lets you know it's getting a signal. Every six minutes the meter will show that it's been running for 1 tenth of an hour. This is a super simple thing to do, and if your generator doesn't come with an hour meter, you might want to install one.
How to Install an Hour Meter on Small Gas Powered Engines, Generators, Lawn Mowers Sharon, one of the Two Tired Teachers, shows viewers how easy it is to install an hour meter on a generator. To get started with the project, you first need to decide where you want to hour meter to be. Closer to the spark plug will be better because you have to run a tiny wire through where you drill. I used rubbing alcohol and cotton swabs to clean the area. I also cleaned the back of the meter in order to mount with the double sided tape on that. If you are reading, skip ahead two paragraphs to save yourself some of the headaches I had when mounting the hour meter. You need to remove the boot for the spark plug. Because you will be dealing with such tight quarters, I suggest you do as I did and remove the side panel too. The directions tell you to wrap the cord that comes with the meter around the spark plug wire 5 times at approximately4 centimeters from the boot. Once you've wrapped the cord around the spark plug wire, then you tighten it around with a zip tie. Remember that you don't want the zip tie to touch the engine so that when the engine is hot it won't damage the meter. Replace the boot on the spark plug. Now you are ready to drill the hole where the wire will be fed up to the meter. It's at this point, I made my mistake. I tried to feed the wire up to the meter. WRONG! I had secured the cord from the meter to the wire from the spark plug, and I had it just where I wanted it, but I wasted a lot of time trying to feed the cord up to the meter. It would have been much easier to slip the cord down to the spark plug wire. Once you have the meter and cord on the outside of the generator, you will put the cord through the channel that's on the back of the meter. I used a flat head screwdriver to be sure the cord is in there tightly and removed the protective tape from the hour meter. That leaves your meter mounted with the double sided tape that was under the protective tape. For right now, that is all I'm using to secure the meter to the generator. If I need to, I can drill holes and attach the meter with screws. With the excess cord inside the generator, fold it and use another zip tie to be sure it stays together and it won't get next to the engine. Now you are ready to see if it works. When you crank the generator and have it on, the hour indicator is flashing, and that lets you know it's getting a signal. Every six minutes the meter will show that it's been running for 1 tenth of an hour. This is a super simple thing to do, and if your generator doesn't come with an hour meter, you might want to install one.