Yeah, had to remove the carpet, to remove the AT 'shift' cover, then remove the white contact housing, clean off grime with syn steel wool... did not occur to me that to test the reverse lights I should not only put it in reverse (w park brake on) but also turn the igition 'on' without turning it over... cause not seeing any results, went ahead and removed the little spring load contact (opposite the white housing) and almost lost the still stiff little spring, removed this contact, to reshape it.. (this squarish brown housing just pops right out... if you push from behind when the 'shift' is pulled all the way back, so you can stick your finger inside from the front-of-van-side) . . . anyway, at first I thought it was a lost cause, until I turned the ignition key to 'on'... 

While I'm at it, to avoid fooling with this for another 10 years, going to replace the AT 'shift' bulbs with led replacements, and spray the contacts with fluid film (as soon as I can find a vendor...) - - I guess the choice in led colors is blue or red? white will only look like yellow plastic? not sure...