Engine Hour Meter

[Mitch]

I've always fancied an engine hour meter, but always been unable to find the ultimate solution 'Tiny Tach' which fits onto the fuel injection line; anyway its over $100 in its home territory. What about an alternative? I found an electro-mechanical special from Amazon, £14 and a positive/negative terminal arrangement. All it needed was a live feed from the engine and an earth. I thought it probably wasn’t too difficult to find a live feed on the key, I have a Yanmar 3gm30 with the basic ‘3 lights&buzzer’ setup. The feed from the key to the warning lights stays positive all of the time the ignition key is switched on (red/black on the harness), this went to the +ve terminal on the meter. I picked up an Earth off the engine for the -ve terminal. The bracket was from an odd piece of stainless and angled so that I could mount it on a bit of bulkhead and still see the figures. The only fly in the ointment was the plastic case cracked when I flexed the bracket, but sure how many people travel in the engine room?