P E H, you're right. My use of the term "short" was not technically accurate and I stand corrected. To be more clear, I would suggest there is still a wiring/connection problem in the tail light cluster, perhaps a "bridge" between two circuits (eg. tailight, stoplight, directional) that could be the cause of the problem. I would investigate this first before I started replacing alternator brushes, battery, etc. which are very likely still OK.

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LRG
1987 300D Turbo 175K
2006 Toyota Prius, efficent but no soul
1985 300 TDT(130K miles of trouble free motoring)now sold