Kioti DK35 Fixed tachometer and hour meter

[GeorgeSB]

My Kioti DK35 tractor tachometer and hour meter haven't been running.
The tachometer cable broke at about 550 hours.

Broken Kioti DK35 tachometer
Broken hour meter


With some research for the DK35, it's a mechanical cable to the tachometer and hour meter, not electrical.
I found the end in the engine. It is located near the front of the engine on the right/"passenger" side. Just lift the right side cover off the engine compartment.
What breaks off is the plastic (PLASTIC!!!) Kioti used to connect the cable to the engine end, which is internal to the cable and makes the engine insert.
Remove that by hand by unscrewing the cable connection to the engine.
Trace the cable back to the instrument cluster in the cab.
It goes into the Tachometer display at a right angle. So, trace the cable through the firewall into the cluster area and into the meter.
To get access to the back of the instrument panel on the DK35 to access the tachometer, just remove the two top bolts above the instrument panel "glass shield" then two bolts on each side of the base plastic, the top most bolt that is recessed into the plastic siding.
To pull the instrument cluster upwards you must pull the pin on the throttle hand control. That's a little challenging.
To thread the cable through the two respective holes, one being the firewall, you must pull out the emergency throttle kill pull switch cable. It is much smaller. And held by a screw in cable-holding device. You also have to pull the rubber grommet that the cable runs through the firewall.

Another "Trick" is that the lower gray panel has a lip sticking into the bottom panel and there's a hidden bolt behind.

Reverse to install.

Some tachometer pictures.


The first and second pictures are of the opened access to the back of the tachometer display and the cable coming out of it.





The third picture is as the cable passes through the firewall



The fourth picture is as the cable plus the smaller throttle shut down cable going through the support structure.



The fifth and sixth and seventh pictures are the insert into the engine on the right side and front of the motor.







The 8th and 9th pictures are of the old broken cable. The plastic is missing as you look inside, it will be in the engine inserted where it belongs but broken off.





The 10th and final picture is of the tractor showing the panels removed to gain access to the instrument cluster back and the tachometer.

 

[Avondale]

Thanks, good info should I need to work on mine. How many hours on your machine before this broke?

 

[DK35vince]

I have replaced at least one, possibly 2 tachometer cables on my DK 35 over the past 16 years.

 

[GeorgeSB]

Thanks, good info should I need to work on mine. How many hours on your machine before this broke?

On my Kioti DK35, it was about 550 hours on the meter when the tachometer failed. The new one I installed came from tractor joe and it is entirely metal. I think it will last a very long time.

 

[GeorgeSB]

I forgot to mention that one of the biggest pains was taking the throttle hand control arm off. It's held on with a pin. That darn pin wouldn't come out without some cursing. If you don't take that arm off then you can't lift the instrument panel out enough to get access to the back of the tachometer/hour meter to remove and replace the tachometer cable.

 

[dadannyboy]

Hey George, wondering what the relationship is between tach and hour meter. My tach works fine but hour meter quit working. Any ideas.
Thanks
Dan

 

[jimglassford]

Hey George, wondering what the relationship is between tach and hour meter. My tach works fine but hour meter quit working. Any ideas.
Thanks
Dan

I was wondering the same thing. Tachs can be cable driven or electronic. The hour meter is electronic and turning the tractor on will run the hour meter. Maybe time speeds up as you reach red line.

 

[DK35vince]

The DK 35 tach and hour meter are cable driven(one cable drives both)

 

[jimglassford]

The DK 35 tach and hour meter are cable driven(one cable drives both)

Vince,

I did some research and I believe you are correct. I would have never imagined a cable driven hour meter. I could not find any reference for the DK35 and saw in the Dealer brochure on the DK35se that the hour meter was electric.

So I performed an internet search on mechanical hour meters in tractors. I was actually amazed how they work. They are set-up as a counting mechanism. Over a certain RPM, like 1600, it basically counts gear teeth and converts them to an hour. However, below the set RPM, it assumes a partial hour. So these were referred to as RPM hours. The justification for this is that most tractors were run at an RPM for the PTO. As more tractors were used for other purposes, lower RPMs were common and the electric hour meter was necessary. So, if you have two tractor idling next to each other, one with the mechanical hour meter and one with the electric hour meter, the mechanical hour meter will show a lower count by the end of the day.

 

[dadannyboy]

Thanks for the input and research guy. Since my tach works(and my dk-35 is a 2004 mechanical driven from what i can find), i guess the issue is in the instrument panel. Anyone have any advise on pulling and messing with panel?