I have been putting this job off for some time (as you can see from when I first piped-up about it….).

I’ve just found a video of a fella who unbolts the guibo/main drive shaft from the back of the front diff, and then pulls the drive shaft back a touch - and then slides the diff out towards the wheel of the car 5mm or so, to gain access to the bastrd bolt on the alternator bracket (without removing the diff or cv shafts). One of the comments goes further, and states that someone has managed to spin the diff round the cv joint (leaving the cv joints fully inserted into the hubs and the diff - not even removing the wheels….

Anyone here reckon that’ll work? Drive shafts will easily come out of my hubs (as I’ve rebuilt the cv joints and swapped boots a couple of times), but I’d prefer not to pull the shafts out of the diff and then have to worry about seals etc. This method claims no need to raise the engine or anything (I do have an engine beam/support bar - but doing less, is more….).

Other than me clearly wanting to do as little as possible, outside in the pssing rain and cold of the UK, does anyone have any thoughts on whether disconnecting the main drive shaft from the back of the front diff, and then rotating the front diff around the cv joint shafts (and pulling it 5mm or so away from the oil pan) would work, to access the difficult to access/ bastrd bolt on the alternator bracket?

I’m getting an intermittent charge failure light, and the car started to lose power and cylinders. Then died - and then was totally fine the next day... Could just be the voltage regulator, but can’t be helping that the alternator is covered in oil… so I’d better fix this before swapping the alternator, which I think is now urgent.

Many thanks…!