Replacing Hour Meter's

Blueone

Well-Known Member
SILVER Sponsor
Jan 24, 2007
13,689
Lake Erie, Ohio
Boat Info
2004 420 Sundancer
Engines
Cummins 6CTA 450's
When you have a number of hours on your boat and you replace the hour meter's.. what is the proper protocol to document the current hours at the time of replacement ?

I am thinking down the road if you sold the boat what's the next owner going to think.
 
If a potential buyer or surveyor plugs an analyzer into the engine it will show the actual hours regardless of what the on dash gauge says
 
If a potential buyer or surveyor plugs an analyzer into the engine it will show the actual hours regardless of what the on dash gauge says
That is OK if the boat is new enough to have that type of equipment,

What I've done in the past is make a label with something like a Brother P-Touch labeler and place it somewhere inconspicuous....like on the back of the new hour meter.
Shawn
 
I have heard of owners that take a picture of the hour meters before they remove the old and document the date of the change. But that would be those that have morality and ethics. And it does not tell how how many hours were run while the meter was dead before it was replaced. I would bet that most times for the pre-electronic engine systems most were just replaced and the owners will lie or "under-estimate" when asked. When I was shopping for my first boat years ago, I ran across a few dead or replaced hour meters. I am pretty sure I was being lied to about every one of them when I asked how many real hours were on the boats. Maybe a coincidence, but the most "ragged" boats seemed to have the lowest hours in those years or had new hour meters.
 
If you really want to minimize questions for the next potential buyer, take a picture of them in the dash just before removal and then hang on to them. Tell the potential buyer you have them if he would like to see them. If you have your service records with hours, that should back it all up.
 
I have heard of owners that take a picture of the hour meters before they remove the old and document the date of the change. But that would be those that have morality and ethics. And it does not tell how how many hours were run while the meter was dead before it was replaced. I would bet that most times for the pre-electronic engine systems most were just replaced and the owners will lie or "under-estimate" when asked. When I was shopping for my first boat years ago, I ran across a few dead or replaced hour meters. I am pretty sure I was being lied to about every one of them when I asked how many real hours were on the boats. Maybe a coincidence, but the most "ragged" boats seemed to have the lowest hours in those years or had new hour meters.


I have done exactly what you just said except when you take a picture with your cell phone there is a date stamp on it And cannot be tampered with since I just replace both of my motors I was stuck With this situation ,new motors but not computers, will still show the old hours but to confirm when I started up the motors I took a picture of the current hour meters that will correspond with what the computers would say ....If there’s another way I’m all ears
 
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Why not just power the meters up for x hours until they match the ones you removed?
 
Why not just power the meters up for x hours until they match the ones you removed?

That's exactly what I did when I replaced the tachs in my 2001 410. I got really close, and actually went over by about a 1/2 hour.
 
I wouldn't sweat it. Just disclose the date the tachs were replaced and put the old tachs showing the hours in with the spares you pass on to the buyer.
 
I did the same, noted the hours on my old tach's in my log and kept them at home so the next buyer can verify. No big deal in my book.
 
I’m going to have sell mine eventually at unknown hours. Bought the boat with a busted tach and no idea if the 354 hours shown was accurate. Seems really low for a 1994 Mercury 135 O/B
 
That's exactly what I did when I replaced the tachs in my 2001 410. I got really close, and actually went over by about a 1/2 hour.
Hey TNT, me again from the other tach thread. I got the old tachs out of the dash panel, thank you very much for your guidance. But regarding your quote above, how did you power up the hour meters? When I turn on the ignition breaker, turn the key to on and press the toggle switch at the helm (alarm tone sounds), the meter shows in the display window but is not counting (numbers don't advance and hourglass icon not flashing). This is what is happening on the old tachs; do the Aetnas behave differently so that the hours can be advanced in this fashion? I'd really like to have the hours on the new tachs match the actual engine hours.
 
Hey TNT, me again from the other tach thread. I got the old tachs out of the dash panel, thank you very much for your guidance. But regarding your quote above, how did you power up the hour meters? When I turn on the ignition breaker, turn the key to on and press the toggle switch at the helm (alarm tone sounds), the meter shows in the display window but is not counting (numbers don't advance and hourglass icon not flashing). This is what is happening on the old tachs; do the Aetnas behave differently so that the hours can be advanced in this fashion? I'd really like to have the hours on the new tachs match the actual engine hours.

Glad to hear! A friend of mine hot wired them to tractor battery in my garage at home with a couple of alligator clips. Unless you're really good with electronics, or have a friend that can assist, I'd suggest contacting Aetna as they were very helpful when I was going through all my issues.
 
Glad to hear! A friend of mine hot wired them to tractor battery in my garage at home with a couple of alligator clips. Unless you're really good with electronics, or have a friend that can assist, I'd suggest contacting Aetna as they were very helpful when I was going through all my issues.
OK, sounds like a plan. I will contact them once I receive the tachs so I can run up the hours. Thanks again for all your help.
 
Glad to hear! A friend of mine hot wired them to tractor battery in my garage at home with a couple of alligator clips. Unless you're really good with electronics, or have a friend that can assist, I'd suggest contacting Aetna as they were very helpful when I was going through all my issues.
So I spoke with Jeremiah at the Aetna technical desk today and he said that he's not aware of any way of running the hour meters without the engine running. He said that the only way it will run is if it receives an impulse from an engine that is firing and that powering them up would do nothing. I explained that I received reliable information from someone who connected tachs to a battery to run the hour meter but he said he's not aware of any way that could work. He said he'd check with other techs and get back to me if it's possible. Any other insight you can provide on the method you used with your buddy and the tractor battery?
 
So I spoke with Jeremiah at the Aetna technical desk today and he said that he's not aware of any way of running the hour meters without the engine running. He said that the only way it will run is if it receives an impulse from an engine that is firing and that powering them up would do nothing. I explained that I received reliable information from someone who connected tachs to a battery to run the hour meter but he said he's not aware of any way that could work. He said he'd check with other techs and get back to me if it's possible. Any other insight you can provide on the method you used with your buddy and the tractor battery?

Okay, so first let me apologize for getting my facts mixed up. I went through a lot of tach issues last summer before getting everything figured out. I'll try to explain as briefly as possible. First time out of the slip last year my sync gage was off, and I had to give it more starboard throttle to get it to the center. That just didn't seem right. So when I had the CAT mechanic out to do my 1000 hour service I had him check my RPM's at the flywheel vs tachs, and confirmed I had a bad tach. I wanted everything as original as possible so I ordered new Teleflex tachs to match everything else and while trying to dial one of them in the little screw in the back disappeared rendering it useless. Thus the reason for ordering the Aetna tachs with I should've just done in the first place. Long story short, I went back through my pics from installing all these tachs and asked my wife what she remembered and it was the Teleflex tachs that my friend was able to advance the hours on. When I sold the boat the Aetna's only had around 47 hours on them (thank goodness I have pics since I can't remember), and I simply explained that I had changed tachs and included the originals with the sale that had around 1070 hours on them. I hope this makes sense now, and sorry for the confusion. If you need more info, please just PM me and we can talk.

Thanks,

-Tom
 
So I spoke with Jeremiah at the Aetna technical desk today and he said that he's not aware of any way of running the hour meters without the engine running. He said that the only way it will run is if it receives an impulse from an engine that is firing and that powering them up would do nothing. I explained that I received reliable information from someone who connected tachs to a battery to run the hour meter but he said he's not aware of any way that could work. He said he'd check with other techs and get back to me if it's possible. Any other insight you can provide on the method you used with your buddy and the tractor battery?

If that's true you can simulate an engine running by using a pulse generator
 
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I don't think it is possible to trick the AETNA tach into advancing without the engine pulse. I'm not doubting the tractor guy's ability, just questioning how he could figure this out. On a Cummins C, the tooth count is 127 pulses per engine revolution. To get the tach circuitry to function you would need to build a pulse generator to trick the Aetna into recording hours.

Too much sugar for a dime....or too many other more important boat jobs to tend to when proof of engine hours is a simple aas keepinh the old tachs with the boat to prove actual hours. You look at my dash and you see the tachs reading about 325 hours when the engine really have about 1600 hours on thm. I know the real TT and can get it in 5 seconds by adding the Aetna time to the time on the tachs that they replaced.
 
Okay, so first let me apologize for getting my facts mixed up. I went through a lot of tach issues last summer before getting everything figured out. I'll try to explain as briefly as possible. First time out of the slip last year my sync gage was off, and I had to give it more starboard throttle to get it to the center. That just didn't seem right. So when I had the CAT mechanic out to do my 1000 hour service I had him check my RPM's at the flywheel vs tachs, and confirmed I had a bad tach. I wanted everything as original as possible so I ordered new Teleflex tachs to match everything else and while trying to dial one of them in the little screw in the back disappeared rendering it useless. Thus the reason for ordering the Aetna tachs with I should've just done in the first place. Long story short, I went back through my pics from installing all these tachs and asked my wife what she remembered and it was the Teleflex tachs that my friend was able to advance the hours on. When I sold the boat the Aetna's only had around 47 hours on them (thank goodness I have pics since I can't remember), and I simply explained that I had changed tachs and included the originals with the sale that had around 1070 hours on them. I hope this makes sense now, and sorry for the confusion. If you need more info, please just PM me and we can talk.

Thanks,

-Tom

Thanks so much Tom, you've been a huge help and I apologize for coming back with so many questions. I have the tachs on order and should be set now but if I run into any other issues while making the swap, I'll PM you.
 

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