Alternator

I decided to look at the alternator today, I did the normal checks and discovered the alternator drive belt was very slack, I might as well  tighten it there and then.
This particular alternator has two bolts holding it in place one is the pivotal bolt and the bottom one is the adjusting bolt, I slackened off the adjusting bolt no problem, but, when I come to slacken the pivotal bolt it was really tight, It was a socket 17mm that fitted the nut, I used brute force but it never shifted, I tried an old trick that has got me out of trouble before although I was taking the risk of snapping the ratchet in my socket wrench.

I found a piece of tube cut it to length and placed it over the handle of the socket wrench and used brute force to undo the stubborn nut, I could see someone had had a go at this nut before as there were some round edges on the nut, as I pushed on the tube I felt the nut crack as it moved, then the whole bolt started moving, I looked in my tool box for an open ended 17mm wrench but I did not own one.
Above you can see stubborn bolt.

I looked up Halfords to see what they had and found what I was looking for, a 17mm ratchet spanner, and a  socket bar to help with stubborn bolts.
Once I had bought these, it was back on the attack to undo this stubborn bolt, I put the ratchet spanner on the bolt and the bar with 17mm socket on the nut, it came undone easily, mind you cracking the nut earlier might have helped.
Now to tighten up the drive belt I lifted the alternator with a piece of tube and done the adjusting bolt then the pivotal bolt. Nice and tight just a little slack in the drive belt.
Next job was to start the engine and see what the Battery charge light does, The motorhome started straight away. I have an alternator tester which I plugged into the cigar lighter, brilliant four lights alight so the alternator was charging but the battery light was still flickering and glowing. I turned the headlights on and the charge lights dropped to two lights and the battery light glowed very bright. I knew I had alternator trouble, I  turned the engine off put voltage meter on battery, it was just over 12.8 volts.

I checked the wiring to make sure no broken wires earthing out everything seemed alright.
I have found an alternator for the motorhome, I shall order it tomorrow, and fit it over the weekend.
I have to pick up Sheilas sister Valery tomorrow from Inverness airport, Valery is staying with us until next Tuesday so I shall not have much time except at the weekend maybe.