If the alternator is quite old, but has been tested with the usual
mechanic's battery/charge tester to be charging quite well, do
you people usually take it to a wireman for servicing, such as
replacing the bushes ?

My alternator in the car is the original APM unit, and has never
been taken out since new, and is now at about 220,000 km.

The bearing is a little noisy, but the aircon man tested with
his charging tester (those square metal-type boxes you see
mechanics use), and it was charging very well, even at full load
with lights, aircon, etc all on.

I asked him if it should be taken out by a wireman to change
the bushes and bearing, but he told me that an alternator,
especially if it was the original unit and working well, should
never be allowed to be taken apart by these guys, otherwise
may cause more problems after ''servicing''.

He also said that these wiremen tended to use China-made
carbon bushes which don't last, or might be too hard and
scratch the armature.

Moreover, he said these guys usually flimsily soldered the
bushes on, and from his experience with his customers (who
asked him to send their alternators to wiremen for servicing)
they tended to fall off, resulting in a total malfunction.

Quite analogous to if your body is fine, don't let a surgeon
cut it here and there.

The Haynes manual page for this problem is attached.

I think other than the autochoke, you could check the spark plugs for any signs of this problem. EDIT === Especially the plug gap. Excessive gap + cold plug + lean mixture (from faulty autochoke) = misfire if coil voltage cannot cope, or the high-tension sparking voltage is leaking away.

Have met same case before. Its like suddenly so difficult for cold start, and yes the autochoke is gone long ago but its noticeably much harder to start.

Mechanic checked the plugs and air filter. Finally just changed the spark plugs and done, also might need to check the spark plugs cables but I just changed it last OCI so yeah. And dusted the air filter for free.

If now you need a quick start from this "super hard to start situation" according to mechanic:
1) Before crank, pump pedal twice, this will lead some fuel to the carburettor at least. (Sometimes car left too long not started, the petrol settled there might already dry up, pumping it will bring some fuel in)
2) Just crank, don't press pedal and crank (Pressing pedal and crank is the worst thing to do as spark may not even light up properly and fuel comes banjir everything, making much harder to start/restart or successful start/restart later)
3) Can't get it running? Repeat Step 1-2 again and again confirm you can start it in few times. (If its due to insufficient spark problem)

If it's just spark plug/cable, then I'll feel relieved partially for being cheap, another part feeling worried for being something must have went wrong and clogged my spark plug because my spark plug just changed last year and travelled less than 10k Journey throughout this time