Well my battery turned up this afternoon gets my car started woopee oh no it starts to smoke like a hilly goat and fries my alternator so looks as if it was an alternator prob all along .

So my question is has any changed one and how easy is it looks quite tight to get the bolts out is a job I should tackle or through into my mates garage all help appreciated

Not to complicated, basically turn auxbelt tensioner clockwise to remove belt, disconnect alternator connections, then from underneath unbolt aircon pump if you have one, undo 3 pulley bracket bolts, loosen 3 coupler bolts, undo the 2 alternator fixing bolts, remove alternator,

Thanks Ian take it you do the whole job from underneath as I looked before and couldn't see access to bolts to remove alternator

Sent from my iPhone using Ford OC

Yep, mostly underneath,

Picking up a very old thread here. I am part way through changing the alternator on my 2009 Focus 1.8 TDCi. 

Firstly to highlight the Haynes manual is wrong re number of bolts on both aircon pump and pulley bracket (it gives as 4 and 2) whereas the instructions above are correct 3 bolts on each (at least for my 2009 model). However above doesn't seem correct re releasing belt tensioner, which is via inserting and turning (the word I just put for this beginning with 's' was blanked out!) an M8 bolt (suggest at least 25mm long) into a hole, which was easy. 

I am also asking for some advice from anyone who has done the job, as it seems the top alternator fixing bolt is almost impossible to access, either from above or below, with the aircon pump getting in the way from below, it is unbolted but it only moves so far with the pipes and don't want to pull them too hard. Even without the aircon pump, the access to get a spanner/socket spanner in would be very tricky and I think you'd only get very minimal 'turning' movement, and you'd need just the right length extension for socket?