I will check things out with a voltmeter tomorrow. It seems to me that a few days ago when I was replacing a front signal light (as the orig. unit had bent contact that was not allowing contact with both little poles on the bulb, so I replaced the light socket with a junkyard part) I touched two of the three little contacts together and something went zap and blew a fuse. Yeah, I know, I know - I should have disconnected the negative battery cable, but I thought "I will be careful..."Anyways, I may have damaged the alternator. So, I will likely have to replace the alternator brushes and see if that works. After the little mishap, the red light did flicker a bit before going out. I understand that replacing the brushes is quite simple.
Now to figure out what the hell is wrong with that damn signal light, as the replacement doesn't work. One of the three little posts on the connector broke off so I soldered it - that is when the clumsy mishap occurred.