Volvo engine hour display replacement units

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Simon 420

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All the engine hour displays in our tachometers have stopped working. We have four in all since we are running two TAMD 63-P's with tachos at flybridge and main helm station. Will get an occasional flicker, but not enough to get an accurate indication.

Have discovered this product and wonder whether anybody has experience of it. At roughly 1/10th of the cost of a new tachometer, it's very tempting

Volvo Penta Tachometer LCD Replacement Screen for VP 873992, 873688, 873998
 
I understand it also retains your existing hour reading, which all other repair methods lose.
 
I did an AK Speedo one last year. Video easy to follow. Took 20 mins. Doing it again would take 10 mins once you know what you are doing.

Happy with it.
 
My boat came with one duff hour meter nearly four years ago. Put off doing it for ages simply due to initially cost£50 on other websites and the perceived difficulty of doing the job
.
Summoned up the courage after discovering that website and sent them about £25.00, they did ask me to send a jpeg of my tachometer.
From start to finish about 30m mins including a few pix to ensure reassembly was correct.
On mine, the connections on the back of the tacho can only be reattached in a particular way it is not possible to get them on the wrong way rond.
It does help if you have set of jewellers screwdrivers and either good eyesight or decent specs.
The hours are stored elsewhere on the PCB in the meter and it will instantly display the total hours on power up.

 
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Have just ordered four of these from Keith at A K Speedo (twin Volvo’s two helm positions). My tachs look the same as Oldgit’s so looking forward to seeing total hours after a year or so of uncertainty. Hopefully I’ll find the job as easy as you others have! Will report back soon but not sure of shipping time to NZ. ...... G
 
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Another recommendation for Keith at AK Speedo. Although many report that it's an easy job, I preferred to pay the small premium to have the job done by someone who had already done it a hundred times or more. Great service.

My last boat had a Volvo engine and the hour meter failed at about 7 years. My current boat has a Yanmar and the meter failed at 6 years. I've written to both the UK Service Agent for Yanmar and the UK Dealer for my French boat to express my dissatisfaction that these meters have a very widespread problem with poor life/durability. No unexpectedly, neither thought my input was worthy of a response.
 
davidjackson said:
Another recommendation for Keith at AK Speedo. Although many report that it's an easy job, I preferred to pay the small premium to have the job done by someone who had already done it a hundred times or more. Great service.

My last boat had a Volvo engine and the hour meter failed at about 7 years. My current boat has a Yanmar and the meter failed at 6 years. I've written to both the UK Service Agent for Yanmar and the UK Dealer for my French boat to express my dissatisfaction that these meters have a very widespread problem with poor life/durability. No unexpectedly, neither thought my input was worthy of a response.
Click to expand...

Yes, very common fault. I padded the connection with a little neoprene several years ago as a quick fix to get it working. It began to fail again last year and I dismantled it to fit an Arduino nano and OLED replacement. However, the needle was extremely tight and would not budge. I was reluctant to use too much force in case the needle breaks.

It is still working but will probably fail again next year. I would probably send it off but the boat is in Greece. I might have another go next year or bring it home in the winter.
 
Great! All done and working.
The four strips arrived at our Auckland marina (well packaged) from AK Speedo 8 days after placing the order. A little fiddly to fit but a steady hand and reasonably good eyesight is all that was required after looking at Keith's demo.
The readings that revealed themselves show that the first owner ran on port only for 40 odd hours but also that there appears to be a very small margin of error in the recording process.
Port Lower: 745.4 Port Upper: 744.4
Stbd Lower: 702.2 Stbd Upper: 703.4
Anyway we're very happy with the service and result.
Thanks to all who recommended AK Speedo!
 
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