Hello!

For all you who have done the 136 amp ZJ alternator upgrade... I have a question. The alternator is going kaput in my 1991 xj and I figured now would be a good time to do the upgrade everyone keeps talking about (I have a winch and subwoofer). I purchased the alternator and am working on grinding the brackets. My question involves wiring upgrades, and where the heck is the fusable link. All of the videos are involving later cherokees in which the wire seems to magically sit very accessibly at the top of the fuse box. Not so in mine. The positive battery cables seem to disappear into the wiring harness at the back of the engine bay. The wire coming from the B+ connection on the alternator is definitely too small - it goes up towards the fuse box, passes underneath the fuse box and also disappears into the wiring harness. There is no obvious fusable link. There is one weird connector in the wire but upon taking it apart, there is no fuse to be seen. I inspected the FSM wiring diagrams and it seems to me that said wire is an 8 gauge black wire and it splits into two 10 gauge wires that each go to their own fuses within the fuse box (each 60 amp), and then from there they go to the positive battery terminal. How on earth am I supposed to upgrade this? I feel like I must be missing something because I haven't found a single post or anything online that indicates any difficulty in finding the fusable link. I can take pictures if that would help. There is also a gray box that won't come open, is this where the fuseable link is?

Thanks!

 

no one answer

I dont know, but you should download your year FSM and check in the electrical section, it has drawings that show its exact location

Its possible some idiot PO replaced it with a non-fusible link cable

For an upgrade, in my opinion, it is good practice to replace ALL 30yr old cables with brand new ones that are rated to carry 136A

As part of that upgrade, brand new fusible links are fitted

Check the archives, there are many excellent writeups with pics

(you should be able to find the 91 FSM by looking within the attached link)

https://www.cherokeeforum.com/f2/fsm...ds-awg-274313/

 

Okay! Thank you! I do have my year of FSM. I'll look again but I'm not seeing a fusible link. I went ahead and installed the new alternator - went slick and everything is working well. I left in the 60 Amp fuses so it'll work for now. I think I'm gonna have to tear into the wiring harness to properly follow this cable and replace it, as well as the B+ to PDC.