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I don't know about yours, but on that generation of cars the alternator got energized in series through a light bulb, if the alternator stopped charging the light would turn on

I think all new internally regulated alternators are “self exciting” now a days.

Yes, they are but I do believe they need a 12v source to start the excitation. So funny enough you need some voltage to start the charge. I think that is what is going on here, the isolator was blocking the voltage to the alternator, I am going to have to look at mine and see what they did to it because it seems to be working.