[johnny_quattro]

This problem is bugging me. I'd had the car rigged up to a mains-powered battery charge the previous day for around 7 hours on a fast charge. I did this in preparation for the alternator replacement. It started up OK but not as quickly as I would have expected.

After the alternator was replaced yesterday with the supplied S8 alternator from a younger car, all seemed well as I was seeing 13.1 to 13.5 with my cheap LED thingy I plugged into the 12V socked on the centre console. Parked the car up for 10 minutes at a friend's house and it would not start. Jump-started myself with the aforementioned DBpower unit, and managed to make it to Harry Halfords for my second test of the week, with a handheld Yuasa-branded box of tricks - again it said that the battery was good and needed charging, this time it was showing 485 out of 800 or so. The positive battery terminal was certainly very warm, whilst the negative terminal was stone-cold. Worryingly, the tester unit was only reporting 12.6V under load, i.e. headlights on main beam and electric A/C fan in operation.

Summary:

[1] I have to start the car using the jump pack each time as there's not enough grunt to start it
[2] Connection block on front chassis rail has been cleaned up and reseated and is free from deposits of verdigris (bluey-green stuff)
[3] Alternator replaced with 150amp one from forum sponsors. Note that the 'new' alternator didn't have DF spade connector on it which was present on my 'old' alternator.

Does anyone have any pearls of wisdom to offer before I go down the detailed auto electrician route?