Adding a hour Meter

[AL Moyer]

I'm sure this has been covered before, & did add one to a 41 H I had a few years ago that I had, but don't remember how I did it ! Anyway, now have a 53 Super H, just put Charlie's 12 Volt 1 wire Alt. kit on it, so has the new 12 volt coil & now neg. ground, wondering, can I just run the wires from the new hour meter directly to the + & - sides of the new coil ?, seems it would be the simplest way, & would only register hours when running ? Thanks, AL

 

[Janicholson]

No. The coil is a pulse operated device (points opening and closing) it would not work. If it is a positive ground 6 volt device, finding a 12v negative ground would be best. Messing with resistors to try to get 6v requires computing the load on the meter, and is not simple it might also require isolating the meter body from the tractor to keep things from smoking. Connecting to the ignition switch coil side(with the correct meter) is good. Jim

 

[Bob M]

Simply connect the hour meter + terminal to the load side of the ignition switch, and the - terminal to a good ground.

Connecting across the coil primary will either not work as the voltage pulsates on and off twice every for every revolution of the crankshaft.

 

[Jim Becker]

Running the ground through a pressure switch that is screwed into the oil system will keep you from putting on a bunch of hours if you accidentally leave the switch on. You need a switch that closes under pressure and opens with none.

 

[DR. EVIL]

It's not hard at all to put a mechanical tach/hour meter/speedometer like the 300/350 had on an H and Super H. Need the tachometer head, cable, and the distributor drive gearbox with the machined bore for the tach cable drive gear. Dad traded my '39 H for the '54 Super H I still have in May 1968, think it was June '68 we put the tach/hour meter on. We put around 250 hours a year on it the years Dad still farmed. He quit farming fall of '72. He kept the '51 M he bought new and waited till December 23th '51 to take delivery. Both tractors sitting in my shop now. M was the first tractor I drove, NO WAY was I letting it get away from me! Wish I had the Super M-TA Dad bought about 1961 or '62 and traded for a '57 450 spring of 1965.

 

[McCormick 40]

Why not just get an induction type hour meter? You can get them for $10 off of Amazon and are easy to install. Just rap the induction wire around the coil wire and it senses the power impulses and starts counting hours. No worry about counting hours leaving the switch on. It won't count them.