O.K. so anyone following this thread, here is the final outcome.
The headlight relay under the dash was spent. apparently this links to the rear running lights, the dash lights, and the headlights, as soon as i replaced the relay everything was back to norm. Here is also a strange coincidence, my driver side rear door would not lock when activated from the driver door. Now it works great???
Interesting working on these for the first time. I am a jeep man but siked to have a cozy rig that's quiet and the wifey likes to ride in it
thanks to skip and hops "I got er done"