generator hour meter

Ok I made the jumper and It works! now the meter is clicking every 3-4 seconds and the switch light is on. That click is pretty loud I wonder if they unplugged it because of that!

Looks like the same circuit as I have, excepting your missing connection. Your plan as outlined in the first post is correct--green ground needs to be hooked up to the meter negative terminal (as well as its current connection on the switch). That should make the light work properly, too, since it's connected in parallel with the meter.

(Note: if you end up blowing up your generator in fixing this, kindly forget who gave you the information.)

when generator is running i get 12v+ reading only when testing (green=ground, and brown=positive). i would have expected to get the same when touching ground test to bottom center spade on switch. there is no light in either the toggle or the meter. what next?

I'm going to post up a picture

On my generator panel, there are four wires that connect to the outside world.

One is ground, which connects to the start switch common connection (middle terminal), the "running" light inside the start switch, and the hour meter. All three are jumpered together. (The "running" light has two terminals that are physically on the start switch body.)

One is the start line, connected to the start side of the switch, which is shorted to ground to start the generator. This presumably goes to the starter solenoid (and control electronics), and I suspect would read as +12V with a multimeter for that reason. It's not a direct connection to +12V.

One is the stop line, connected to the stop side of the switch, which is shorted to ground to stop the generator. It also would go to the generator control circuitry. It may not show voltage when the generator is not running, and even then might not be a steady or standard 12V.

The fourth wire is a 12V "generator on" feed that connects to and powers the light and the hourmeter, which are jumpered together in parallel.

If I'm understanding your post properly, it sounds like the same setup, with a missing connection to the hourmeter and possibly light. The ground side of them should be connected to the ground on the switch if indeed it is the same circuitry. If it's a different setup, then--well, it might be different.

do you mean you can read continuity NOT voltage
from the switch grd to frame ground
but not at the other end of the jumper on the meter ?

the jumper is bad

because a switch has wire labeled ground does not make it frame ground unless you can read continuity to the RV frame

maybe the hour meter is JUST BAD

There are 3 posts on the switch for 12v, grnd, stop. There are 2 additional which is where the jumpers from the meter connect. One of the is ground but no reading on my volt meter. I was going to add a jumper to the switch ground. Make sense?

The ground is usually in the control wiring harness going back to the generator
Control panel inside error cabinet wall, might not be any other ground close
Double check generator wiring diagram for control panel
Might not be wired using frame DC ground