please look at my Isolater diagram

I posted before and someone gave me a great diagram on paper, the problem is I am still having problems. All my guages come up and I can hear the fuel pump going and when I turn the key I get the click from the starter but the engine is not turning over. I can easily get everything working if I wire it all to a single battery and I had a perko switch last year but I want to use the isolater so I don't have to be turning from 1,2, or all. I disconnected the original lead from the starter because I was running directly to the 1st battery but even when I reconnected to have both it still didn't work. On the other hand the starter is clicking so that can't be the problem.....Any suggestions?

I would suggest you disconnect both batteries before that thing catches on fire. Rip all the wires out and start over. See the website of the isolator for recommendations.

The starter clicking is the solenoid engaging. It might not move far enough to engage the starter itself of it might not have enough voltage to turn the starter, or the contacts might be bad and not letting enough voltage across to run the starter. So, yes, the starter could be the problem.
In your photo you seem to show direct lines from the isolater sides to the positives which is normally correct. But you also show a direct line from the center terminal, which is alternator power in usually, to positive on the second battery. That's a big no.

Your ignition should run through the same battery as the starter but I don't see how you have that hooked up.

(Message edited by rallyart on May 10, 2007)

Did you draw that red line (labeled as alternator lead) incorrectly? That is the only blatently incorrect wiring. You should move the "dash/accessories" wire to the other battery. The stereo should be the only thing on the other battery if you did not rerun ignition.

Check your grounds are clean and tight, same on the starter power line. The isolator has nothing to do with the starter engagin the way you have it wired. Battery may be dead. Accessories are on the other battery, and the isolator is not combining the banks because the engine is not running. Battery combiners work better for these types of installs.

(Message edited by Olskooltige on May 11, 2007)

this might help

like steve said, you shouldn't be splitting your dash/accessories and starter. Long story short, you're not getting enough voltage.

Also, i would grount the second battery back the engine.

Yes the red lead on the center post of the isolater is the alternator. The other red lead going to the second battery is the accessories which is a seperate cable. my bad.

That first diagram is the one I am using.

I think what I need to do is like Steve said to reposition the accessories lead on to the first starting battery. I guess the other part of the problem is that the deck is still running off of the accessories cable instead of being powered seperately to the 2nd Amp battery. Otherwise when I am sitting in the water listening to tunes the deck is drawing from the first battery and not the second.

your boat should start the way its wired. I understand what you mean - you're still pulling from 2 batts with the enginge off. Thats the way mine is setup right now. All amps off of separate battery bank, HU and starter off of another.

But, it should still start wire like that. check all your terminals and connections. check your batts. something may have drained them.

why would you be running the boat acc and the amps from the same battery?? The whole point of a isolator is so you can have a boat battery and a stero battery. The guage wire you are using from the alt to the batteries is way over kill. You need to take the wire from the back of the alt and send that to the center post of the isolator. The wire you have going to the center of the battery I imagine use to be the cable that went to the battery + terminal. that needs to stay on the same curcit. As I said take a smaller guage wire, 8 or 10 and run that from the alt to the center post. Cut the original wire that is from the alt and cap it. You should use a fuseable link on the alt to the isolator wire in case of any grounding.The ground shouold be running between both batterys and you should have a 8 or 10 ga wire running from each post of the isolator to each battery. You need to start over as mikeski said

by the way throw the perco switch away unless you plan on running 2 acc batt

I will go ahead and mention battery combiners again. They are a great option to isolators, are way cheaper, and you can hear them engage if you geed the switching type. There are also solid state types that are inaudible. No switches to remember.

As mentioned before, boat should should start, but you would be better off moving the boat ACC cable to the starting battery. You can run a new cable to the radio and depth sounder/temps if you want those options for sitting without engine running. Just ground back to an amp ground, or the same battery as if you don't you will likely get ground loop.

My knee jerk reaction is that it is an accident waiting to happen to have the same color wires for both positive and negative. I see black, blue, red and clear all being used on postive leads. I see black and clear being used on negative leads. I see two clears used for positive and negative connected to the same battery.

Eventually, someone will connect something backwards!

Rod