Nissan Repair: 1990 nissan truck headlight troubleshooting, low beams, fender bender

Question
i just purchased a 1990 nissan pickup.the drivers side low beam wont work .replaced bulb but old bulb works on the other side. with headlights removed i checked voltage on connectors passenger side high 12v,low 12v but 5v on high .the voltage on passengerside is 12v high, 12low with no voltage on high. the passenger works fine drivers will not. i checked voltage with headlight installed drivers side and i loose the 12 volts on low .what gives? i checked continuity from wires right to left at headlight connectors.i had continuity on ground and high but not on low.i need to fix this problem for safety reasons.can i wire the 2 low beams together and fix this?i think there is no relay only the switch.i think the steering wheel has to be removed to replace column switch.if installing a no wire would work and cause no problem is it a good idea or bad.i did open the back of headlight terminal to check for bad connections and corrosion and there does not seem to be any.the passenger fender was replaced due to small fender bender wreck but all repair seems to be ok. the headlamps worked correctly after the wreck for more than a year.any advice would be appreciated. thanks in advance!

Answer
Bryan,

This has nothing to do with the wreck.  But, Nissan has a complex headlight switch that feeds power to each side independently.  That is, there is a set of contacts for left and right for both high and low beam.  One side blows you have the other one.  American cars mostly have the blinking headlight switch that causes the headlights to flash as they overheat and cool.  You are going to need to replace the headlight switch and your problem will be solved.  If you are as cheap as I am you could remove the headlight switch and try to get inside to the contacts that are corroded and file them to get  a few more miles out of the switch.  It is difficult to do so it is easier to replace it.