those little interior light switches fail on many older vehicles.  they
are mostly just a little pivot that moves a spring metal contact into
position .  remove the light assembly and you can normally accesst he
switch part and the wires from the back side to make sure the contacts
are wired correctly also.   there are either two or three wires on
them.  the three wire variety has one wire that goes  directly to the
frame for ground.  then one will go to the switch in the door and the
other to  12v main.  the two wire variety usually does not have a
separate ground wire.
the main failure points are the spring contact or the light contacts
(corrosion) or the plastic pivot is just worn out.  next is a cracked
case that keeps the pivot from operating correctly.
jimt
On Monday, Oct 28, 2002, at 22:55 America/Denver, T. wrote:

> I was wondering.. how can I turn on the interior light in my van
> without opening a door? So far, I can only get the driver's light to
> come on when I open the door. I have tried flipping that switch to
> different locations. Is ther a hidden master switch?
> --
> Happy motoring!
>
> Timothy in Phoenix,
> 84 Vanagon "Sparkii"
> 69 Bus "Buster"
>