[wild man]

I'm pretty sure the VR brushes on my alternator are worn down too low and I'm not getting sufficient charge on the battery. I was going to wait until after saturday (hershey swap meet day), but I'm afraid of getting stuck along the way somewhere, so I decided to rip into it now. I have a replacement regulator, but I thought it would be easy to install after intake stuff is removed, only to be reminded that there is a cooling duct plastic cone on the back end of the alternator that needs to be rmoved and out of the way for the voltage regulator to be replaced. I can see 2 nuts that can be removed from the top, and assume there is one that can be removed from underside. But the question is, can the plastic cone be moved far enough out of the way in order ro replace the regulator? Or, do I need to loosen and remove the belt, and then unbolt the alternator from it's mounting, so it will slide forward enough to be able to put a new regulator on the back end of it?