I started the old girl recently and left her idling for a half a minute or so, after which I heard the engine note change, and smoke coming out from under the bonnet.

"Oh dear", I said as there was lots of it, but it smelt of burning rubber.
There must be something amiss in the accessory drive chain, so I removed the serpentine and spun all the pulleys:- nothing tight or rumbling. Run the engine briefly - all seems OK. Odd.

After some headscratching, I refitted the serpentine, then pulled F2 in the engine management fusebox (supplies power to the alternator regulator). I restarted the engine, and sanity returned, other than the expected 'not charging' message.

I ordered a new Denso DAN672 alternator from David Manners* which I fitted today and all is well. The job can be done from the top if the airbox, its bracket and the suppressor module are removed. No need to detach anything else, despite the JTIS procedure. I used my pivot balljoint breaker to push the mount's sliding bush/spacer back out so the new alternator would drop in unobstructed.

I'll do a post-mortem on the failed one when I get a chance. I fitted it almost 10 years back so I suppose age kicked in despite maybe only around 3000 miles.


*No affiliation, but his price was way better than anything I could find locally - even with shipping - and the service was excellent.

 

Well done....

 

I’m very impressed with your cool demeanor when under stress. I would be including a lot of expletives right after the “Oh dear”

So I want you in the foxhole with me when the “______” enemy (fill in the blank as you choose) charges us.

Z

 

Thanks, but I did moderate that slightly, although it was definitely much more polite than my diatribe the next morning.

I was hoping to get it to my work's underground car park ahead of the storm (garage full of MGB not movable at that time). The alternator was straighforward:- now I've just got to deal with the 20 or so hail dings as a result of not getting it under cover.

We don't get hailstones that size here. Except we did.

 

Good idea using a ball joint remover for the sliding rear mount ..seen many casings broken by morons with a hammer !!!