Warren,
don't laugh. A steering wheel is small. I was helping a friend restore a 1957 Thunderbird and it takes two people to carry one of those huge front fenders and he lost one for two days. Had all of us looking for it. That fender was as big as my whole car.
Asfor the switch, almost anything can be caused by something in that mess in the steering collum. If something came loose it could be causing it to not make contact. You should be able to go to your relay, if it is in an easy place to see, and figure out which are the high beam and which are the low beam leads. Mine are all whiute and numbered and I hate them. Wish they had been color coded. That was why I put in an extra relay and used the spade connectors. I can just pull one off if I don't have the wiring diagram and put 12 volts on it and go see which lights light.
ron