Ok, I finally graduated to what I thought would be my bestest toy, a 2002 Boxster S with 65,000 miles. I dropped it off at my local foreign mechanic just for an inspection of what he thought it may need. The list really wasn't that long, but 1300 for an alternator? 1400 to replace engine and tranny mounts??
A brief history, I'm a gearhead from way back, even though this is my first experience with a Porsche. Bottom line, if I ever pay someone 1300 to replace an alternator I'll have one of my buds shoot me afterwards. Well, that was before I tore apart half the car to even see the alternator. After about 4 hours of wiggling and struggling I got it out, sent it off to be rebuilt and now struggling to get it back in; no problem, I'll let it sit and work on something else. I bought this book, 101 projects you can do to your Porsche and the front engine mounts seemed like a walk in the park....so did the alternator. The book has a lot of nice pictures but leaves a helluva lot of details out. Anyhoo, front engine mount done, back very sore. Next stop is transmission mounts, started on driver's side, had to remove way more than the book suggested, but it's done.
Now I am on the passenger side and the one bracket bolt that goes into the tranny is way up top, can barely touch it let alone get a breaker bar on it. After hours of having that puzzled look I thought ok, let's go in from the trunk. So, here I go, ripping out very neatly fabricated carpeting, only to realize there is no access from the trunk.The word Sawzall comes to mind. At this point I was tempted to go back to the alternator but decided to pop open a beer and seek advice. I was wondering if the mount can come out without the bracket. My thoughts is there is probably just not quite enough room for the main holding bolt to come out of its holder, the star shaped one. What I will say is absolutely hats off to the ones who decided to work on these on a daily basis. Any ideas to get my toy back on the road would be greatly appreciated.