Straight 550 hour meter

[RogerP70]

I’ll start by throwing it out there I have a complete manual and have read it, but didn’t see anywhere that answered this question

The hour meter isn’t working on a 555, it’s located beside the battery. The problem is obvious, only the ground is connected to the guage, the other wire is missing completely. Nowhere to be seen.

So my question is this, where would the other end of that wire be, does it feed directly off the engine? From the tachometer on the dash? I looked around but nothing seemed obvious to me

[Jim B]

I looked at my 450E manual and the hour meter wiring shows in the wiring diagram and the section on gauges and instruments. I don't know if the T1108 manual has a section on the gauges and instruments, but it should have a wiring diagram showing the hour meter.

An hour meter hook up is simple. You have the ground wire in place. The only other thing it needs is a wire from a power source that is live when the engine is running. Some machines used an oil pressure switch to control power to the hour meter. I don't think that is the case with a 550, if it is the wiring diagram would show an oil pressure switch in the hour meter circuit. The 450E says the power for its hour meter comes from the ignition terminal of the key switch. Same will work on your 550, if the hour meter is still good, run a wire from the ignition terminal of the key switch to the hour meter. The meters are polarity sensitive, and the wires need to be hooked to the proper terminals on the hour meter.