Delica Canada | Mitsubishi Van Club

Yesterday, I finished picking up some supplies from building centres in the nearest city in my 1995 L400 Delica. I was making a left hand turn and kept my hand on the signal as I made the turn. As I finished the turn and the the signal lever let go, I felt it click in a different way. It then stuck signalling to the left. So I made a left turn into a parking lot and began looking things over.

With only a leatherman, I wasn't able to take the plastic covers off the steering column. I was able to pull the covers off enough to see that there were three plugs for sets of wires that fed into the base of the signal/headlight/highbeam/lowbeam arm. I was able to disconnect each plug. (This was not easy.)

We then started the one hour drive home. Luckily, there were no turns requiring signals and only two lane changes before we were out of the city. I put on the hazards whenever we were making a turn and tried to do my best hand signalling turns.

This morning, I was able to remove the switch arm and the "base". There were at least three bits of broken plastic. I could glue two back together easily and with some confidence. (My hobbies have me gluing a lot of stuff together.) However, I'm less sure about the one. Besides, I'm not even sure that the plastic bits are the problem. If I were, I'd get gluing. Otherwise, I'd order a replacement this afternoon.

Does the fact that it is stuck doing a left signal mean anything?

I had the same thing happen to me. It's broken. The cheapest option is to by the replacement part Beck Arnley 201-1974 Turn Signal Switch. It runs about 75$ on Amazon. Once you put it it, your headlights will turn on in the opposite direction, but it was the cheapest and quickest fix that worked for me.

It will depend on options if that is the correct part # or not. On some vans you may need to replace both sides (ie the wiper control and signal switch) as it is one unit or you might be able cannibalize a new switch for parts. Easy enough to figure out but mine was expensive as I did not find this aftermarket switch until today.

On my 98 I had a "similar" problem. In a very tired state I tried to put my van into drive using the wiper stalk. Oops. I found out there are three or four different wiper mechanism you may have. I also had the three pieces of broken plastic. The important one was a little toggle you'll never be able to glue back in. Cheapest solution was to find a similar size drill bit, drill out the original post location, cut the bit to size to approximate the size of the toggle and reinstall with a dab of glue. 3-4 years later still working fine. Hope that helps.