Might seem like a silly question but, where's the alternator on a mk3 (2001) V6 Duratec?

My alternator's become intermittent. It just went one night while I was driving home, the battery light came on and would initially go off again every now and then come back on, until after a few days of driving it like this it just came on and stayed on all the time. The alternator evidently does still work, obviously now it's just not enough to keep the battery charged up, and when driving at night I can see the lights flickering and flashing bright then going dim every now and then.

As of right now though I cannot afford to get it fixed, but I've been told there's a slim chance that giving a whack might make it work properly (at least for a short period of time). I figured anything is worth trying to prolong the need to get it fixed, but I cannot find the damn thing... There's just too much stuff in the way to be able to see and I don't want to start taking anything off to get at it until I'm sure I know where it is.

Giving it a quick tap helps in the short term.

The problem is usually that the carbon bushes wear down to a point where the springs pushing them onto their contacts are too slack to apply proper tension and you get that annoying intermittent charge fault.

I had it on a Honda a few years back and kept it running for 6 months plus with judicious knocks with a wheel nut spanner.

Some alternator sales places will take old ones in p/x for good quality recons.