I cannot emphasize porkface's point about grounding enough. I have picked up two 240's in the past for peanuts because they would not charge. The ground wire from the alt to the front cross member looked fine, but vibration had toasted the connection of the wire to the eyelet inside the insulation. The only way to find it is to physically pull on the wire hard enough that if the insulation is good, but the wires are broken, it will pull out of the connector. Of course the trick is to not pull so hard that you break anything.

The worst part about this type of failure is that it will be intermitent and most "normal" cars do not use a seperate ground wire for the alternator so the average mechanic won't suspect this as the failure.

Onkel Udo