Sliding Door Light Switch replace/repair

[Andrei]

Hello all! I'm hoping that someone else has run into this problem and has a way to fix it. I have done a search on the site but couln't find anything.

The "switch" (for lack of a better description) that controls the centre light coming on for the sliding door does not seem to work on our Delica. When we open the rear hatch the light comes on but not when we open the sliding door. I have reached in and give the switch a couple of pushes and it feels ok. Has anyone had to replace this? It is in a fairly hard to reach spot and any tips would be greatly appreciated. We would like to have the light come on when we open the sliding door so that when the kids are getting in and out we can see what we are doing.

Thanks for any input!

Andrei

[Green1]

if you remove the plastic panel on the inside of the vehicle in that location you can get at the back of the switch to see if it's a switch problem, or a wiring problem. (easy enough on my 91, but I'm not sure if the seatbelts on the later vehicles make it a pain or not)
The light comes on whenever you ground the wire leading to that switch, so try that, and see if the light responds to the wire.

[Erebus]

It sounds like the switch has issues, or maybe the wire has come off the switch. As Green1 mentioned, it is a negative grounding, so the wire is live, and the switch makes the ground connection to turn the light on.

The later Delis with shoulder belts make it a little harder to get at the switch, but not too bad. (The reason we both know is that we have cut-off switches installed so we can actually have the door open without the lights coming on.