98 Grand Cherokee NOCO battery isolator hook up

[clocktowersniper]

I am adding a second battery to my GC to run my HAM gear and inverter. I have a NOCO isolator for the batteries. I know 1 wire goes to batt1 pos, one goes to batt 2 pos, one goes to ign source, and my question is on the GC what wire do I use for alternator? It seems to have 2 wire studs on it, Both go to the magic little black box on the wires. One looks to have 2 little green wires. Ideas?

[clocktowersniper]

I tried the Jeep forums and here. Nobody has used an Isolator on a Jeep?

[135sohc]

Are they the same alternator family as a 2.2 ?

[clocktowersniper]

I don't think so. I just figured someone here must have worked with one before. The issue is I know what post to work off of but you are supposed to disconnect battery one from the alternator and the alternator goes directly to the isolator. I'm trying to figure out how to remove battery one from the factory alternator circuit. It seems it is back fed from the power distribution center or so it seems anyway. The other issue is it also looks like there are other things on that same line

[shackwrrr]

Those battery isolators usually split the main power wire from the alternator before it gets to the battery, The main power wire on the zj should be the one under the plastic cap and should be significantly larger than the other. That would go to the AlT connection. then the original wire that was bolted to the back of the alternator would be relocated to the batt1 connection then the batt2 connector goes through a circuit breaker or fuse then on to the aux battery.

[clocktowersniper]

Ok, hold on. Let me see if I have thins right because I am not sure it can go that way. The way I was figuring it was this way.
Right now the alt wire goes to the power dist center (with all the fuses), short wire from there goes to battery one. That's the way it sits now. If you disconnect at the alt then you get no power to the fuse box. It also splits off to the starter and a few other things.

The way I was thinking this may work was to leave the wiring from alt to dist center, remove short wire going from dist center to batt one. Run wire from alt post to alt post on isolator. run from isolator to batt one and from post 2 to batt 2. This way the alt is still powering the dist center but not directly to batteries unless thru isolator.

I don't have the FSM for the Jeep so I am going by this cheapy auto zone schematic. From that it looks like the alternator powers the dist center then batt one, correct? There is a post on top from alt to dist and on bottom from dist to batt.

[clocktowersniper]

Here is the isolator:


This is the post I was talking about. The top wire comes in from the alternator harness. The bottom is a short wire going to battery.

[clocktowersniper]

Now that I think about it, I don't think this will work. I think if I do that then it will only feed power when running because the battery wont be hooked to the PDC. Hmmm..

[shackwrrr]

If you hook the alternator to the pdc and the battery isolator at the same time then you have no isolation. The current wire that goes from the alt terminal to the PDC should be attached to the batt1 connection, then run a large gauge wire from the alternator to the alt terminal on the isolator, and finally a wire to whatever battery you are using for an auxiliary to the batt2 connection.

The jeep's electrical system should still get power as everything is still hooked to the b+ terminal at the pdc, you are only splitting the charging output of the alternator between the batteries.