Regulator replacement help please

JJM · 08-14-2003, 12:27 PM

I've spent the morning replacing the voltage regulator in my '89 911 coupe, I've followed the Techincal articles from this site and Wayne's book as best as I can, but alas I'm a newbie and I've encountered a snag. All came apart well, and the new VR attached fine, but when I tried to reattach the plastic air guide to the fan housing I can not get it to fit back in. There are 2 metal "fins" attached to the air guide, 1 long and 1 shorter, can anyone tell me how these should be oriented? When I try to put them back facing downward (as I believe it was when I took it out) I can not push fan with attached a air guide far enough back.
Help please.

Rick Lee · Rick Lee's Garage

I marked mine with a Sharpie before I took it apart and I can't take a look at it now for you. There is a photo of it in Bentley. If you look very closeley at the photo, you can figure it out, but it is not immediately obvious. I think this is actually pretty important to get right.

JJM · 08-14-2003, 12:48 PM

The more I play with it, I believe this is the only way it will work. Someone please let me know if I'm off here.

tsuter · 08-14-2003, 01:58 PM

Here is a shot of the air diverter correctly mounted on the fan housing. Note the position of the blades and the two coil mounting bolts on the fan housing. This is an earlier model but possibly can help.
I used red paint to mark the bolts and the air diverter holes during disassembly to assist in reconnecting.

masraum · 08-14-2003, 02:48 PM

JJM that is exactly correct. As you are looking at the hole they would be between 10 o'clock and 12 o'clock.

JJM · 08-14-2003, 03:09 PM

Thank you all very much for the help. Everything is back together now and working great. I love this place!

scottb · 08-14-2003, 05:50 PM

JJM: I'm about to pull my alternator for rebuilding. Did you encounter any snags along the way during your R&R? Tips or advice would be appreciated.

JJM · 08-14-2003, 10:34 PM

My problem was with my regulator, but I followed the directions from
Wil Ferch in the tech section and from Wayne's book, and the biggest problem I had was with reattaching the plastic air guide to the fan housing. Just take pichures and take notes of the attachements and you should be fine, I was just in too much of a hurry. The other problem to watch for is freeing the alternator from the fan. I only wanted to replace the Voltage Regulator so I didn't detach the alternator from the fan, but I tried, and they were very stuck together. I tried a wood block and nothing budged, so I stopped at the regulator, but as I understand you'll have to seperate the fan from the alternator to get the alternator rebuilt. I would suggest having it professionally rebuilt. The pros' can do it in about a day and typically charge less that $ 100, but it's up to you. Other than that, no problems, and I am not very skillfull at all. Let me know if you have any questions or if there's anything I can do to help. Please forgive my spelling, it's late, and I've been celebrating my accomplishments.