18 HP Vanguard engine

I have a new engine and I would like to add an hour meter and amp meter to it. This engine is electric start and I have moved the key switch off the engine to a panel that will be mounted on the frame of the machine I am putting it on. For the life of me I cannot remember how to do this and hook it into the key
 
Well, put the ammeter in the wire that goes from wherever the positive battery cable hooks and the battery post on the ignition switch. Depending on which starter, the positive battery cable will either hook onto the starter, or it will go to a solenoid that has another big wire to the starter. Either way, you put your ammeter in the smaller wire from that same terminal.

To clarify: You want the ammeter between the Battery post on the ignition switch and the positive battery cable. (There should be a wire that makes that connection already.) That way, you only read what amps are actually flowing from or to the battery.

Just so you know, on some systems, when the battery reaches full charge the ammeter will drop back to zero and tbis condition is not a sign there is anything wrong with the charging system. If the alternator is working, when you first start it will read a good charge rate in amps, because its putting the charge you used to start it back in the battery, and then the charging rate will taper off toward zero after a while.

Wire the hourmeter into a circuit that is powered when the switch is on and the engine is running. I would probably use the fuel solenoid wire, if there is a fuel solenoid on the engine.
 

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