Perkins M50 hour counter not working

[sandrunner]

New boat (for me), no maint log, but haven't used the engine much at all the first week or so until today. Engine hour counter not working, but everything else in the panel appears to be working fine (tach, temp, etc).

Any ideas to try or is it a pain in the #$$ repair job?

[W32PAMELA]

The hour meter on my M50 died at about 2000 hours. I just stuck a basic 12 volt hour meter on the back side of the engine panel and connected it to one of the 12 volt points that only have power when the engine is running. Google "12 volt hour meter".

This worked fine for another 4000 hours and is still working as far as I know (I replaced the engine recently).