Hour meter
 

Does the hour meter on the motor keep reading hours if the ignition is on but the motor is not running?

It shouldn't that would totally defeat the purpose of the "engine hour meter"

I thought any time key was in run position hour meter ran whether engine was running or not.

It depends, the old style 80's, 90's would run when you turned the key.

It depends, but yes, that it typically the case.

Why the question?

I was hooking up a stereo on a single battery boat and thought it needed to be wired into ignition instead of direct to battery where I know someone will forget to turn it off.

You would need a 4 way ignition switch for that. Accessory / Off / Run / Start

Psst: 99% of boaters would kill a battery that way too. Doh !

Yes...The hour meter will run, but the hours on the computer only go up if the engine is running. Don't ask me how I know... LOL

Put the REM/ignition wire on a rocker switch.

Put a battery kill switch in the boat, shut it off when you call it a day.

if the hour meter gets 12v accessory power its clicking up time... most often they are wired in to a key accessory circuit.

OldSchool is 100% correct 12v hour meter vs computer logs

I drive my boat in reverse to make the hours go down! :lolhit:

Yeah, on old school it will keep ticking along if wired the way you have... I have 6 more hours on port than strb due to a failed fuel pump and long ass ride home....
I've seen some newer after market hour meters that read when an engine is running via vibration, but wasn't sure how that would work out on a boat. The computers know all, but since my boat didn't have an hour meter, I installed new ones when I put in new engines last winter. 100 hours in 1 season!

My hour meters are wired to the purple wire/key on. Any time the key is in the run position, the meter runs.

I use to hook up the hour meters to the charge lamp on the alternator. When the alternator start charging the hour meter runs...

Peter

It does on my Formula and it did on the Chaparral I owned previously.