well my day started off badly, half way up the M2 heading for work, a warning light came up, battery warning, and a message electrical service required. at this point I also noticed the steering was heavy, oh I thought- broken alternator belt. I safely pulled into a service station that happened to be handy, upon checking under the bonnet, there is the alternator belt, its not broken, but isnt on the pulleys. hmm why I wonder, closer inspection revealed the alternator pulley way off alignment with the other pulleys.
well I carefully drove home, no electrics or power steering, then it was a two hour tussle to swap the old alternator from my old car into the new one, this achieved, it was time to look into the reason the pulley had failed - this pulley has a clutch in it to stop the alternator being overrevved. this one was freewheeling in both directions, when I removed the pulley the centre was allowing the outer to spin around it, the actual clutch part had seized. so car once again running, this is the second time my old car has saved the day by donating spare parts.