Yesterday the battery light on my 89 RT4WD wagon (manual trans, 128K miles) lit up. A garage checked the battery with a meter and said its not getting any charge and I had a bad alternator. Is this likely correct, or should I check other things first? The bad news is he said to replace the alternator, he has to pull the left transaxle shaft and get it out through the bottom. And wants $140 labor to do it. I don't mind paying if there's a lot of work involved, but this surprised me. Is he on the level? Does anyone know for sure if the alternator can be R&Red from the top side? I used to do these routinely on other cars without any drama.