Porsche Enthusiasts Club Forum

Just do a quick yahoo search there are plenty of companies selling online and doing delivery some next day. Just be careful if your battery sits under the bonnet to make sure of the size of the new one including depth.

I took my chariot for a nice run earlier (man I love this car) - she fired up first time after not been driven for a least a week. I noticed that the voltage on the dash didn't get to more than about 13v and when I got home I measured 12.84v on the multimeter with the car running. Looks like the alternator needs a rebuild as suspected - well now at least I know fro certain. Now I've just got to pluck up the courage to face the cold in the garage this week and pull it out...

I tried to measure the resistance - which I'm not sure about doing. I set the multimeter to 200ohms and got 1.0 on the battery and off. So I'm pretty sure I don't know what I'm looking for...

Don't use a MM on ohms across a battery, you'll kill the meter!
If it is a digital voltmeter then set it to DC Volts 20 & then put across the battery it should show With the engine stopped put the lights on for a few minutes then measure it should show 12.75 or so, any lower you have a knacked battery.
With the engine running around 13.75 , with headlights & HRW on. Any lower the alternator is stuffed.
If it is a conventional pointy needle MM then it won't be really accurate enough, bit like the ornamental Porsche one!

Rightehoo

Had my alternator rebuilt for the princely sum of £47 - included a voltage regulator, and new bosch bearings. I can highly recommend Roger at Power Components in Westbourne, West Sussex. Considering a refurbed unit was in the region of £180+vat plus my alternator in exchange having mine rebuilt was more common sense! Some porsche parts guys are selling the volatge reg for more than 40 quid alone....

Biggest headache was finding a replacement M10x130mm pivot bolt after mine was jammed solid in the mounting bracket. Porsche have them on backorder and so do VW (it's the same as a 80's Passat). Only solution was to hand over a paltry £25 to have it pressed out at a local garage. In the end I found a bolt on eBay, so this afternoon I refitted the alternator.

Fired my baby up after more than a month of sitting in the garage in the cold - voltage when running is 14.75 with lights, heater & stereo running - result!

Took her for a spin and I'm loving it all over again.