First of all, I'm planing on putting a second battery in my 72 f250 camper special. The orignal setup is gone so I'm going with a battery isolater. In the poor instructions it came with it says to replace the wire from the alt. to the isolater with a new 8 guage one. Do I have to really do this or not, if I do then what all do I have to do. Do i just run an 8 guage wire directly from the alt to the isolater? Do I have to worry about any regulaters?

Second, can someone tell me which wires are for what that are connected to my solonoid? I have a solid red wire with a built in fuse, a black with a white stripe, and a black or dark green which has a thing saying fuseable on it. (I'm guessing the last one is the charging wire from the alt.)

Third and final question, Anyone know an easy way to pull the steering wheel?:-X23

 

[updated:LAST EDITED ON 20-Dec-01 AT 00:01 AM (EST)]The Center terminal is for the Alternator lead wire(red)
then a wire from one of the end terminals goes to the starter solenoid and the other end of the isolater goes to the poistive post of the Secondary battery. Thus, Isolating one from the other.
When the engine runs it charges Both batteries at the same time.

Just make sure you have some form of power drain from the isolated secondary battery,if you don't, it will probably get over-charged all the time and shorten its life.
Run a stereo from it or something.

Oh Ya, the steering wheel,
Buy an in-expensive steering wheel puller for about $10.00 .
Then it's a snap to do it.

Dennis:-X12



It's Almost Time Everyone.
https://www.ford-trucks.com/user_gallery/sizeimage.php?&photoid=314&.jpg


78 F-150 429CJ C6 ,Silver w/Explorer Pkge
641/2 Mustang,Pre-World's Fair Car #8092
64 Fairlane S/C waiting for a 390-4spd.
68-Mustang.Sunlit Gold 80,000 miles :-X12

 

Answer 1
8 guage will be fine, run in from the Alternator + to the centre post of the isolator, well usually centre on all the ones I have seen.
Remove the original wire from the Alternator + and install it on either the right or left post of the isolator.
Run another wire from the other post on the isolator to the positive of the 2nd battery.
That is all there is to it, well all there is to the charging system anyway. You still have to hookup circuits to the 2nd battery and of course hook its negative wire to the engine block

Answer 2
The red wire with the fuse sounds like an add-on accessory, the black with white stripe is most likely the alternator feed, the one with the fusible link is probably the wire that feeds the power to the truck fuse box. But dont take my word for it much can change in 30 year old trucks.

Answer 3
Go to the Tech Articles there is a good one there on how to make a steering wheel puller. It works great and on more than just Frord trucks.

Sparky

 

Ok, my alt. wiring is a mess. It makes it hard to wire the isolater according to the instructions. From the alt. is 2 wires an orange one and a solid black one. These two wires go into a solid black thing (see pic one in my gallery) from this comes 3 wires, an orange one, a solid black one, and a black with red stripe. The solid black one then goes to a small back connector (see pic two in my gallery) and out of that comes a heavier solid black wire, a yellow wire and a black with yellow stripe. the heavier solid black wire then goes to another connector type thing (see pic three in my gallery) and out of that comes a solid yellow wire, a solid red wire and a smaller solid black wire. The red wire meets the yellow and black with yellow stripe from the previous connector at a plug (also see pic three in gallery) Then the orange wire from the alt and the yellow wire from the last connector go into a metal box (see pic four) and out of that(?) is a green with red stripe wire which goes to a plug type connector. Where the yellow wire goes in the is also a cylendrical (sp?) thing.

I have a few questions. First, should the black with red stripe go to a ground or does it go some where else? The reason I ask is because it was grounded but it melted.

Second, should I just take the orig charging lead that went to the solonoid and put that on my alt terminal on my isolater? If i do it that way do i just the run my wire from the isolater to battery?

Sorry for all the info but I wanted to make sure that you had all the info you needed. I would like to thank you guys for all the help your giving me

 

Just a Thought---If i was in your shoes-----and was unsure(i.e.--confused)--I believe I would go back to the Origional hookup--pre-isolator , and wait until I was completely satisified that i understood how the system was supposed to be hooked up and function aswell---There Ain't no hurry---take your time ----One point I would make----The regulator in a 72 electricial system is the Referee between the battery and the alternator---it knows when to charge and when the battery is fully charged-----it keeps the alternator from boiling the fluid out of the battery(overcharge)---I would think that the isolator --logically --would--be wired into the system so as to have the regulator work as it's referee as well--other wise the alternator will eventually ruin your second battery!!!!!!!!!!!!fd

 

Go to page 2 of this forum and look at the thread
*Alternator Connections Mixup*

It's near the bottom of the page.
In that thread there is schematic of the average for truck charging system.

Go Have look and get back on this thread.


Dennis



It's Almost Time Everyone.
https://www.ford-trucks.com/user_gallery/sizeimage.php?&photoid=314&.jpg


78 F-150 429CJ C6 ,Silver w/Explorer Pkge
641/2 Mustang,Pre-World's Fair Car #8092
64 Fairlane S/C waiting for a 390-4spd.
68-Mustang.Sunlit Gold 80,000 miles