During a clutch change, I raised the car on my lift, got to the point where I needed to remove the starter, realized I forgot to remove battery. Instead of lowering car and removing cables, I wrapped the starter wires. All was going fine until the battery wire leading from the front of the car to the starter got wedged between the tranny and tranny jack. Spark!

Finished the clutch job, car started fine(i was shocked) well, after an hour of driving I noticed voltage was down to 10 volts. Through research I thought I blew the voltage regulator, so I ordered new alternator with new regulator. Installed tonight, same problem. I had previously checked all fuses.

What did I blow? I see a bunch of relays above the fuses...

Please help.

 

you need a wiring diagram to see if there is something like a fusible link.that could of melted.can you follow that wire to a junction block? see if anything there melted .
or if any of the Major fuses blew
,,Im not to familiar with Porsche.So not sure if they are set up like alot of other cars.

 

I'd start with the battery before you take the harness out of the car

Follow the wire from the starter. I believe that it goes straight to the battery. The batteries hate to be shorted. It starts a rapid chemical reaction and creates intense heat. The lead plates can bent out of shape and the electrodes can become shorted inside the battery disabling a cell within a battery. (a 12v battery usually has 10 cells)

What happens than is that the shorted cell drains current from the other cells making the alternator work twice as hard and discharging your battery at the same time.

Take the battery out. If you have an automatic charger try to charge it. These usually have a test circuit and will tell you if the battery is good or garbage. It might take a few hours of charging before it tells you thou.

Once you try that get back to me. If it's not the battery I'll give you a few more testing tips.

 

If you look at the wiring diagram you will see a wire from the alternator (generator) to the post where you normally boost the car (under a small black cap) take a look at the condition of this wire... May be you will need to do a continuity check between the alternator and the post..... It is a black wire...

 

Bought a new battery yesterday.

A little more info, it wasnt grounded long at all, a split second, as soon as it sparked, I moved it out of the way. My point with this is that it didnt have time to melt a wire. (unless a wire can be melted in less than 1 second)

 

I will look at it again, it seemed fine when I changed the generator tonight. This is the main wire on the generator right? Also, this isnt the wire that shorted, the one that shorted goes to the front of the car.

 

It can. Check the wire that jpflip posted.

Throw a voltmeter on the battery. Check the voltage before cranking and once it runs. You should see if it charges.

Also, if the wire is indeed burned or grounded there is a possibility that you also killed the new alternator as they cant be run shorted or with no load.

 

The other wire on the alternator goes directly towards the cluster and the voltage indicators. In that case may be this wire is damaged. This wire is blue.... Good suggestion by Adam!

 

If you look at the other end of the alternator, the blue wire goes to the cluster and voltage indicator....I would like to check the continuity of this wire first....

 

I am pretty sure the blue wire is fine, I am getting a voltage reading, its just low.

Do you have 2 things?

1. A fuse map
2. A relay map

 

I cant be the first bonehead to do this? Someone has to have "heard" of someone else doing it and what it took to fix it.

I am trying to get ready for a track day next friday and need to put 500 miles on the new clutch.

There are 3 wires on the starter, a pair that look like they go to the alternator, and a single that goes to the front of the vehicle, this is the one that I shorted for 1/2 second.

 

Relay carrier #1 and #2. #2 being located behind the back seat besides the ecu....

 

jpflip, you are awesome and must not sleep.

Is there any way you can send a larger copy of the fuse map, I saved the image, but when I blow it up, it is illegable.

Rep already given.

 

Talisman you got PM!

 

Look at the fuse in the relay support #1 at location 27