my headlights recently quit working. At first the lights would go out when i had the steering wheel down but i figured as long as the steering wheel was up it will be ok. When this first started I could put slack in the wiring running up the steering wheel but recently the lights go out and will not turn back on. the truck is a 1995 ram 4x4.

 

Stupid question, but did you check the fuses?

 

yes checked fuses lights work if i hold the bright light switch, its got to be something in the wiring between the box and the wiring up the steering wheel i think

 

This happened a couple weeks ago in my dad's 96 dakota.... We were driving along in it one night and the lights just die. he frigged with the hi/lo switch and they came back on, but did this several more times after that. That was fun. He said that there was some wiring under the dash or at the headlight/dimmer switch that had chafed through and had previously been repaired, and he thought that might be the problem again... I dunno if he fixed it yet or not so I'll ask him tomorrow. I know he has already replaced the headlight switch since he's owned the truck, maybe this was the problem... different trucks, but might be a similiar problem...

 

failure of the headlight sw is very common. check that first.

if ok, then i'd guess that you have a broken wire in the harness at the pivot point of the tilt. on my 01 i removed the knee knocker panel (i think), then the covers around the column, and this gives you access to the multi-function switch and the harness. the covers were a pain, and very hard to seperate w/o breaking the tabs. i broke one.

my covers required a long skinny torx, maybe a #25.
my multifunction sw required a security (hollow) torx, which i bought at autozone for about $10 for a set. my multifunction sw was $42 at AZ.

 

I also just remembered, my wife and I borrowed his 99 Ram 2WD in september to go on our honeymoon and driving down the I-95 the first night the headlights would randomly just go out, but the drls and fog lights stayed on. the whole time we had it i had to occasionally shut the headlight switch right off to make sure the HLs were on and not just the drl/fogs. If they went out, I could play with the hi/lo switch and they would come back, same as the dakota. He did tell me (after we dealt with it for a week in the states, of course) that the hi/lo switch was bad. this may or may not be your problem, but it definitely sounds like you have a short somewhere, probably in the steering column.....