Did some more searching and here is some of what I found. Before cleaning the bulbs and trying the lights, I had taken off a towing harness which was spliced into the rear lights and taped off all the splices.
So one of the previous postings mentioned a heavy duty flasher unit. Which it did have installed, I have taken this off and connected back the original. When I had 1st gotten the truck I had checked the fuses and there was a 20 amp fuse where there should have been a lower amp (can't remember which one exactly) but since the heavy duty flasher relay was 20amp I am assuming that was the light fuse.
Anyway, it is dark here and I will continue my hunt tomorrow. I will try to document it here in case anyone else runs into these problems.
Next is to see whether everything is back in working order, if not, then, I will check headlight relay, then the sub fusible links, plus clean the positive terminal connections (neg cable is new), as well as replace all the fuses.
Thanks for the suggestions.......last resort is taking the hazard switch apart, if I cant find one.