[Formerly Steve Wilkinson]

What I'm trying to say is that the "rednecks" know far more about alternators than any of us do. An alternator is not a "Porsche part" that requires super-skill. It's a generic machine. I have found that shops that specialize even though they can't spell Porsh are often vastly better than the shop-coated Dieters. When I wanted my 911 engine balanced, I took it to a place on a back street in Newburgh, New York that builds hundreds of super-modified and sprint-car small-blocks every month--big sport up here.

I think we sometimes forget that our antique engines are well within the capabilities--at least in certain areas, like alternators--of goo old-fashioned mechanics (not "technicians" or "service specialists") to handle.

Perhaps my suggestion that your friend take his alternator to a good local shop that has been in business for 50 years indeed does go against "the spirit and intent of this board." Ask me if I care.

Lazy and aloof? I was entirely serious. I think it's lazy and aloof to characterize the craftspeople who work at these places as having a ciggy dangling from their lips and a Bud in their hand.