thankyou everyone for your replies. I will check for hot spots tommorrow when i get time. I do know for a fact that their is a circuit breaker inside the switch for the headlamps, and that it's tripping out on some sort of overload after about 15 minutes of lights on. i did not try high beams yet, but they are operational. i am going to do a good overlook of the underside of the dash as well but being the mess that it is, i think i am just going to have to live with turning the switch off and letting the circuit cool and turning them back on again and again. i am actually hoping that it heats up enough for me to see wires starting to smolder. that would cause an ease of repair.