The six month old alternator decided to go bad. It had been on the way to bad with showing me sometimes, the red charge light would not come on , before start up of my car, and there was no charging current to the battery when this happened. Intermittent , sometimes, the red light came on and charging worked, finally, no red light and nothing happening with the alternator. I have dual carbs on my engine, like I think most have. If you already know how to build a 356 Porsche engine you should go to some other post, as you already know what I am suggesting for the Beetle engine. This post is for those who have limited knowledge or have to do their own repair work.
It took me 40 minutes to get the alternator out of the fan shroud and I was wondering if there was some easy , low cost way to improve the way the VW factory installed the alternator, for future alternator replacement. I figured another 40 minutes to install the new alternator. About two hours, normal person work time. I used to work in a Porsche repair shop, so recalled the 356 engine has a neat way the engineers designed the "generator" stand. Now, they only had generators, but the concept here works for either generator or alternator removal from your VW air cooled type one engine.
Once the bad alternator was out of the way, I removed the four 8mm nuts holding down the alternator stand and removed the alternator stand. I removed three of the 8mm studs, which those nuts were on. I left the rear one in the engine case, which is towards the center of the engine. See picture. I did that to allow the gaskets under the stand to have something holding them in place. I cut one slot in the base of the alternator stand to allow the stand to slide into, not over, the remaining 8mm stud, left in the engine case.
This is basically the same design used on the 356 engines. Porsche left the two rear studs in the case and used 8mm bolts, not studs and nuts, on the front of the generator stand. I decided to only use one rear stud to help align the gaskets. With the replacement alternator placed on the stand with the retaining strap tight enough to keep it together, but loose enough to allow the sheet metal and the alternator assembly to turn, as needed to line up the four 6mm holes which hold the sheet metal to the fan shroud. Then, placed the alternator/stand assembly into the fan shroud. This requires NO lifting of the fan shroud, no removal of the dual carbs and I later realized I could have left the spark plug wires in place. I did not have to remove any of the fuel hoses and did remove the wires going to the engine, as you have to, to remove the alternator.
This will cut the time you take or the time you pay your mechanic for labor in half, at least. It will make my next alternator replacement go faster and with less curse words. I am sure this improved installation, which follows what Porsche did on the 356 engine will greatly made your life better.
With the removed studs and the one cut slot in the alternator stand, I used (3) 8mmX25mm grade eight zinc plated quality bolts with the German wavy washers. Torque about 12 ft. lb. but you only need to have the bolts and one nut tight, not super tight. The lock washers will hold the bolts and nut in place. Don't over torque these 8mm bolts or the one remaining nut.
So, simple change in my engine alternator stand mounting. I am going to do this on all my rebuilt VW engines as I hate the wasted time it takes to remove and replace any generator or alternator. This suggestion will also work not only on the speedster but perhaps a bigger time saver on the Spyder mid-engines. I hope this saves you time in the future. Cost for the change was less than $5.00. If this is not clear, the new set up will slide out of the fan shroud, on any dual carb engine and makes changing an alternator a much easier chore. Just a side note- I hear some shops charge $500 labor as they remove the complete engine to change out the alternator as the fan shroud will NOT clear most of the speedster bodies, so removal seems to be the normal repair method. With my suggestion, you do not remove the fan shroud or need to remove and replace the engine. Major time saver and should save all money, in any future alternator removals. I would charge only $75, labor, with this improved set up, if I was doing the work.
Getting a new engine built for your Speedster or Spyder ? Ask the rebuilder to do this simple modification and it will save you money and time, later on. I rarely see any of the China made alternators lasting more than one year. Bosch only offers a one year warranty on their expensive NEW alternators. I buy the lifetime warrantied alternators from places like Auto Zone or O'Reilly Auto parts. ---George K. ---
