Does anyone know if you will damage anything (the alternator or voltmeter guage, for example) if you jump the car at the battery posts instead of at the jumper points under the hood?

 

you will not hurt a thing, just make sure the other car is off when you do it.

 

Thanks. I guess I fried my voltmeter some other way!!

 

There is no real difference between the two, and your not really worried about the alternator or gauge.......it's the LH computer that reportedly can take a terminal hit by doing any jump starting........notice I said "reportedly" not for certain......

I have jump started all three of my past and present 928s by the jump start post and have not had a single problem..........just minimize sparking and any "jolts" to the electrical system and you should be fine.

 

A Porsche tech at a well know shop was telling me that late model 911 if you jump start a car with a dead battery as soon as you unhook the jumper the alternator does not recognize the dead battery and the alternator immediately cooks the diodes ............

 

Although there may be subtle differences in some of the systems, modern alternators are pretty much the same in design and function. I can tell you, from experience, that a jump-started alternator is capable of generating current in the absolute absence of a battery, once it gets going by being jumped. It didn't hurt the alternator, and it ran the engine and the support circuitry for more than a 1/2 hour, absent any battery at all.

 

Yes Brian that can happen however it is really not a good idea . The racing kill switches used for cars with alternators are two wire style and disconnect the battery from the engine AND ground out through a ballast resistor to give the power being generated a safe path to discharge into . One should never run the car without a battery or disconnect the battery on a running car due to the very high potential for damage to the alternater / voltage regulator .