1985 fleetwood brougham RWD...

drove it to town last night and when i parked it it had trouble starting. the low beams were pretty dim and sitting in traffic trying to get out of town the service now light came on and all the electronics shut off, pretty soon the entire car died, we pushed it to a gas station and got it jumpstarted. i jumped right on the freeway figuring it was the battery not getting charged and the car drove fine all the way home. last night i drove it again, no problems al though my low beams did look a little dim. i clicked the high beams on and all the lights shut off except for my parking lights. the blue high beam indicator on the dash didnt even come on.

so what blew? what did i mess up this time? i even tried charging the battery and then turning the high beams on and nothing!

You need to replace the dimmer switch. Very common problem, and cheap and easy to fix. Take the trim off under the steering column, then the two big nuts that hold the column up. Lower the column. Wiggle the turn signal switch, and you will see the rod that goes into the dimmer. Unplug the dimmer, take out the two mounting nuts, and install your new one (less than twenty bucks). The mounting holes are slotted so you can make sure that the switch is activating properly. You have to pull out a little clip before you install, this allows it to click. Plug in wiring, put everything back together.

It won't look exactly like this, but it will be close...

http://shbox.com/1/ignition_switch.jpg

If the headlight circuit for my 89 is the same as your 85, then the only thing I see is the dimmer switch (on the column). It is the only thing that directly sends voltage to the high beams and to the high beam indicator. Electronics do not like low voltage and by hitting the dimmer, you could have cause a spark to burn the contacts.

okay thank you guys im off to autozone!

I'm sure you'll get this too late, but you should get electronics at Advance Auto because they stock AC Delco.