The alternator seems to be working nicely. It struggles a bit at idle when you have a lot of current draw e.g. Fan and headlights going but once over ~900rpm it settles off nicely at 14V+. I may look at ways of artificially raising the idle but apart from the fan dropping speed and the lights dimming a bit, it runs ok off the battery when you're waiting at junctions etc (or you can just blip the throttle a bit).
My other electrical problem with the non-starting is still apparent though. It happened on a stone cold engine yesterday so it's not a heat soak thing. I'm going to fit a stand alone ignition switch to rule out the ignition barrel. I've done some reading and this is the most suspect part. Yesterday, because it happened at home I was able to experiment and found that the voltage reading at the battery was 12.8V which was mirrored at the starter and alternator. You then turn the ignition on, the pump runs up and the warning lights come on. You then hit the start button, the starter clicks once and the whole system dies. At this point testing the battery still gives 12.8V but if you test at the starter and alternator you'll read 1.5V, not even enough to light the warning lamps. Then, with no pattern to what you tap, wiggle or tighten in terms of connections, you'll get the full voltage back. Try starting again and it dies. It took me 20 minutes to get it going from cold, started first time after sitting for 30 minutes when hot and then another 20 minutes of mucking around the 3rd time I started it warm a few hours later. It's all rather confusing really ...
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