Ok, nice one!

Thats a typical situation to which i could write a redicolous sugestion, as I cant think how to word it, to try and simply say what Ken has said!

When you start the car in the morning it runs the battery down and often it takes s few moments before the gauge kicks in and starts to show the system state and even longer before it shows charging, in winter its worse as much of the output is running the headlights as well.

Dont get brutal with the alternator tension when you fit the new belt as that speeds up the wear on the front bearing. As its almost a 180* wrap of the belt on the pulley, hand pressure on the alternator rather than a tyre lever is usually fine. Simply upping the tension on the belt beyond gripping tension wont increase the output of an alternator that's badly regulated and/or with worn brushes.

I've broken it even more. I received the new brushes from ecas today. Correct brushes for the iskara (something like that) alternator. so i disconnected the battery, unscrewed the old ones and wiggled them out, put in and screwed the new ones in and reconnected the battery. Now the car wont start, it just goes clunk/switching noise. I took the new ones out and screwed in the old and it is still doing it. It sounds like its coming from the starter motor area, but its defintely towards the alternator. What have i done?

Sounds like the battery is flat, or the starter is seized. Try giving the starter a knock with a hammer, but if it hasn't been charging it stands to reason that the battery is flat.

Ok so even if it started without issue when i drove it a few mins before changing the brushes?

Nothing, except fit new brushes...
That clicking sound is the solenoid making and breaking contact inside the starter motor, either because the battery is almost flat or the battery leads aren't making good contact with the battery posts.
You could try slackening off the bolts on the terminals and twisting them around a bit as you nip the bolts up, if that doesn't work, maybe a bump/tow start or charge the battery overnight.

Possibly. Did you have the lights on or anything? Possibly not. Mybe its siezed. Hell, I don't know. Maybe magic fairies came and fucked it up when you weren't looking.

Lights were on on the way home, but not when trying to start it. I have another job to go to in a few minutes, so i'll leave the battery on charge over night and try again tomorrow. Thanks a lot for the advice, Russ, it was either magic fairies or an idiot with no idea what he was doing. I know what my money is on...

did you give the pulley a spin to see if it was all spinning fine?
did you clean up all the terminals and vaseline/ coppalip them?
but i reckon Russ is on the money with a flat battery

I had something similar after we left for CZ, stopped at Kens to change the starter but found it was a dry connection between the solenoid and the motor.

sean