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Looking for an okay tachometer for my rider that is easy to instlall, reliable and won't need irreplaceable batteries after a season.

I saw one where the pickup lead was wrapped around the spark plug wire but it had a non-replaceable battery inside the sealed case.

thanks

sorry about the double post. perhaps a mod can delete one. The site has been very slow on my computer.

Why mount a tach to the mower? There is usually only low idle at around 800 RPM and high idle at 3600 RPM for operation under load. They are not like a car/truck.

I only use a manual tach for seasonal tune up and diagnostic check and that is an old-fashioned B&S vibrating wire design. I've had that old tach over 40+ years since I started out and it has never failed me.

I want to verify the operating speed. It's been all over the place lately. My mower rarely idles, its the top speed that needs attention. Manual states full throttle for mowing but it seems too slow most of the time and too fast a couple times.

What kind of rider and what engine. Just on a guess, you have a fuel related problem happening.

Cub Cadet 1320 hydro, Kohler Command 12.5. Just replaced the fuel line, fuel line filter, added a shut off valve. Cleaned the carb, replaced the gaskets. Cleaned the spark plug. Runs fine but the top speed varies. The only 2 screws on the carb are for idle and idle mixture and those don't affect top rpms. The mower has a rube goldberg set up for the throttle and choke cables. I haven't looked into it to see if there are any adjustments there. I suspect the air intake butterfly valve is fully opening. If I jamb my finger in the works to try to push it fully open that doesn't appear make any difference.

What is this "old-fashioned B&S vibrating wire design"? Never heard of that.

Hi rickpaulos,

Its call a "Treysit" in German. Great to have if you work on a lot of small engine equipment.

rickpaulos said:

Looking for an okay tachometer for my rider that is easy to instlall, reliable and won't need irreplaceable batteries after a season.

I saw one where the pickup lead was wrapped around the spark plug wire but it had a non-replaceable battery inside the sealed case.

thanks

Click to expand...

Search "small engine tachometer" on Amazon. Plenty to choose from there.

rickpaulos said:

Looking for an okay tachometer for my rider that is easy to instlall, reliable and won't need irreplaceable batteries after a season.

I saw one where the pickup lead was wrapped around the spark plug wire but it had a non-replaceable battery inside the sealed case.

thanks

Click to expand...

Amazon or ebay find one looks like this. as i am a bit deaf i use them to make sure i am not driving around with the choke on

Search for 'tachometer digital' on aliexpress and you will find a good selection. There is one model that wraps around the plug wire for its input. It will register rpms, and also has a resettable hour meter, such as for oil change intervals. One version has a non-replaceable battery, and the one that is a few dollars more has a replaceable CR2032(I think). The battery in the first is potted, however I think if you are persistent, you can unpot is and replace the battery.
This has a replaceable battery:

I have several of the non-replaceable and they work OK.
Here:

tom