While taking a pleasure cruise just to get out of the house both headlights went out simultaneously....

I had the turn signal/flasher unit working in bright light only mode for a while, and hadn't bothered to pull things apart to fix it....

The car had a brief electrical overheating smell for a few seconds before darkness set in.

I flipped my flashers on and pulled into a gas station. All fuses are good, which makes sense given that the headlights have a total of four in use.

My take is it is the bright/dim toggle on the steering wheel assembly.

Before I take that apart, any body feel it might be something easier?

It could be the hi/lo relay but they don't usually smoke. My guess would be a fried switch. The toggle only sends a momentary ground signal to the relay.

No direct smoke, just a light odor.

Relay sounds right, especially since the turn signals and flashers work well.

The hi/lo relay is electro-mechnaical. A coil inside moves a flip/flop cam on the output contacts. If you can hear it click, electrically it is OK but mechanically it may be bad. usually the spring on the cam weakens and makes the cam jam. It will usually jam on one or the other. Very rare would it stop working all together.

If you smelt something, it was smoke. Check the relay for power. It should have 12V on the red wire if the key and switch are on. If you have no power, look at the switch.

I went outside and checked it out...

I have a clicking sound, and I did have brights only for a while, now nothing....

So I will check the cam in the morining.... Is this the same concept at the cam on American Flyer engines from the 1950s? Cams were used for forward/reverse/neutral functions.

PS, I didn't hear any clicking from the time I got the car until this Tuesday, when I got a set of hearing aids. Bingo! I could hear my signaling...

The cam is inside the relay. You will have to open it and see if it operates.