Well, that’s an overstatement. A bolt holding the alternator (generator) on had worked loose, hit the blades of the fan on the alternator, got flung upwards to the bonnet (hood), clouted that, bounced backwards hitting the bulkhead (firewall) and then slid down and come to rest behind the engine mount. The alternator, thus freed, slackened itself off and saved itself the effort of charging the battery….
….it’s all reassembled, I don’t know what made the bolt undo itself, but I’ll have to keep an eye on it. Oil’s fine, coolant’s fine, now it’s charging, and when *cold* it’s dead easy to start on the starting handle. Completely impossible when hot :(
Some asshole told me when I was trying (to save the battery – since I’d not charged it) – that “if you want to get it started there’s 3 blokes over there”. I missed telling him to fuck off, only by a few seconds, and mostly due to being really shocked. Arsehole. I did tell his mate to fuck off though :-)
