Hello, the light rod should have a spring , fork and retaining clip at bottom . The wiring harness base has indentations that turn lights on or off by the fork that is on end of light rod , sounds like yours may be missing or not attached.
My rod had a square shank on the underside of the head that seemed to be catching on the steering wheel and turning it off and on. To pull the rod and file shank round and replace the little bushing at the top, I had to unbolt the steering box to get clearance in my coupe.