Q: alternator
 

so of course i'm on a trip, 1300 miles from home.

battery light comes on. made it to an o'reilly's and they hooked up their tool. guy said the alternator was shot ( i figured since the light came on while driving ). ordered a replacement that they will have in the morning.

my question is, i know in general is something else like the regulator or the rectifier which can be replaced more cheaply. however i'm in commerce, tx - 80 miles or so from the nearest porsche shop...

if i replace the alternator does that include the probably bad parts or are those separate?

already found mike foke's write up on how to replace so it looks like i'll be replacing the alternator ( something i've never done ) in a hotel parking lot - interesting...

The voltage regulator is in the alternator, so if you get a new/rebuilt unit, it should already have one..........

Am I missing a part? I can't get the alternator out. I took out the roller bolt and the bolt on the bottom left. I pried it up and now it seems wedged in.

Help?

the only help i can add is to be extra careful with the lower bracket. it seems to be pictured alot broken

yeah i can imagine. i finally got it out, just took more force than i really wanted to use. and then it popped out - it must have been really tight on the right side bolt because it was just wanting to pivot there.

Tony...
I know its now too late, but on the lower left hand side (@ 7 o'clock position) of the alternator, you can see the black plastic inducton plennum bolted to the cylinder head.
If you remove the nearest bolt you can see (10mm) holding the plennum to the head, it allows the alternator to swivel round and removal is easy.... Installation of the new alternator is also much easier too.
Don't forget to re install the bolt !!

yeah i saw that, but after some wriggling, cursing and sweat, i got it all put together. just stopped for the night near nashville, tn without incident averaging 90mph and a few stops here and there.

though now it seems either the cat or heat shield is rattling - around 600 - 900 rpm i get a pretty decent rattle around the rear driver's tire...

Curious...did O'Reillys loan you the tools? (I've never been in that situation before.)

No, but they advertise loaner "specialty" tools. However being a small town, I was next door to a walmart. Just bought the wrench and a set of sockets.

Woah.. that exact thing happend to me about 1400km from home.. and 400 km from the closest Porsche dealer!.. and they couldnt have it before 1 week!..
that was a pain.. :P
I had to have it towed to a BMW dealer 250km from where I was and found an alternator from a part store around with a Overnight shipping fee.. :)

Ended up fine.. but you never want these thing to happend far from home.. :P

Man, you are my hero!
 

To think that you replaced an alt in a motel parking is impressive. Congrats!

Norm

i did have to ask one older gentleman who walked with a cane to walk back to his car and move it since he parked right next to me and i had to have the door opened for my feet to stick out. i felt like a d*(k.

i can see why removing the passenger seat would be helpful. it was quite hard to straddle the console with both seats pushed forward all the way. not something i want to do again.

in case anyone is curious, there was no need to put the top in service position or remove the carpeting / storage box from above the engine, only the front carpet and firewall.

all in all, not a hard job. mptoledo's write up was good as was mikefocke's. i started at 9:30 and had it all finished around 12:45 including the 1 hour walk to / from o'reillys to pick up the new alternator and give them the core. the hotel manager was kind enough to let me stay in the room until 1 so i could shower afterwards. i usually carry my small socket wrench set in case i need to replace the belt or do something else but i left them at home this time - whoops. made it back home at 2am monday morning.

grand total of 3200 miles roundtrip.

Thats killer Tony! Changing your alternator in the hotel parking lot! Awesome!