The interior light in the '76 Kombi can be manually switched on at any time, seems to be a three position switch. Is it meant to come on automatically when the doors open (because it doesn't at the moment)? Also the light it emits is a fairly dim yellowish glow, what's the best way to whiten and brighten this up?

Wellif the lights not coming on either you have a bad connection somewhere or the switch on the light is broken. Happens to alot of interior lights as they get old. Too make the light brighter I pulled the switches out of the door pillars and cleaned them until everything was clean and new again. I would also clean all the connections of the wiring. This turned my lightly glowing light into a full on beacon of light. At least I can read the street directory at night now.

Don't do what I did and put in a really high watts bulb. Nice and bright , but smell of burning plastic was a bit too much to bear.
Peeed off with myself, let me tell you. The early oval ones are getting hard to find in good nick.

Had the same problem. Two causes:

The passengers door had a blank instead of a switch!

The drivers door switch innards had corroded.

This has been about the only simple to fix item on my Kombi.

Anyone able to post digi-pics on where I should be looking on the doors for the switches?

No, but they're not hard to find. They're mounted in the car body, not in the doors. Open the driver's door wide, and have a look at the front of the opening. You will firstly see two large Phillips screws that hold the edge of the dashboard to the body. The door light switch is about 5cm below the bottom screw. It unscrews with a little Phillips screw. Pull it out, check that the wire is attached, the contact is clean and the button moves freely with its spring loading.

I assume you're talking about the interior light in the driver's cabin, and not the rear interior light (Microbus). The driver's interior light has a three-way switch. CENTRE is OFF. Moving the switch to the FORWARD position turns the light ON continuously. Moving the switch to the REAR position activates the door switches, so that the light is ON with the front door(s) open, and OFF with the door(s) closed.

The Microbus rear light can be turned on from the driver's position - there is a knob on the dash next to the cooling fan and headlight knobs.

Yes it's the light near the interior cabin. I had a look where you suggested (not a thorough look yet) and the first thing I have noticed is that there is only a switch on the driver's side, not the passenger side. Is this going to cause it not to work?

"I have noticed is that there is only a switch on the driver's side, not the passenger side. Is this going to cause it not to work?"

Only when you open the passenger's door.

Not all kombi's had the light switch on all doors.

My 76 micro has a switch on both front doors AND the sliding door; my 75 kombi has switches only on the front doors; and the one I looked at in the wreckers the other day only had a switch in the driver's door, with a blanking plate in the others. :o

If you still need photos, let me know.

Thanks for all your help guys It turns out on proper inspection that there are switches on the sliding door and driver's door which I pulled apart and cleaned the contacts. The passenger side door has no switch but the space for one and it looks like there is a wire to be hooked up there but no switch but I'm not 100% sure about that yet. Anyway while cleaning the switches I found the real culprit was the one on the driver's door as the external button part that is usually depressed when the door is closed to switch off the light wasn't actually making contact with the door so the light would always remain on. I have since resolved this by gluing a small rectangluar piece of closed-cell foam to the door so that the button now works when the door closes Voila working light!!! I might still investigate hooking up passenger side wiring also. As for the yellowish light I disassembled the actual light fitting, gave the cover a good clean and noticed that the actual bulb is brownish in colour on one side so whilst it has improved after cleaning I'm sure it will be even better with a bulb replacement!

Well done!

You've just inspired me. My front door switches work fine, but my Camper is based on a Kombi rather than a Microbus so I have no sliding door light switch. I was just thinking how convenient it would be to have one on the sliding door, so I will rig one up when I get a free weekend.

Is the sliding door light switch the same part as the front door switches? Where is it mounted in the sliding door jamb? And I wonder where the cables to it would run? I will try to find a wrecked Microbus and have a look.

I suppose a door switch on the rear hatch is asking too much!

I will try and take a digi shot tomorrow for you and post it up

The Microbus light switch is mounted into the B pillar and is the same switch as the front doors...but it has a special block mounted to the sliding door which makes contact with the switch when its closed. Nothing stopping you making one though :thumb

Doh no fresh batteries for the camera at the moment The switch is about 10cm below the door catch and as 11CAB says, it appears to be the same as the front switch. Unfortunately also I spoke to soon before, yes the driver's side switch is working fine now happy about that but the sliding door switch doesn't work. I can't see an easy way to follow the wiring so I don't think I will be able to fix this one

I will have to find a Microbus and have a look.

I was wondering about the wire myself. I can easily patch into the passenger door switch, but how on earth can the wire be fed up the A-pillar, inside the body across the top of the left door then down the B-pillar? I doubt I could poke a stiff steel wire up there. And external wire would look ugly and unprofessional.

I think you'll have to remove some of the headlining to run the wire, and run it from the top down to the bottom using a plumb-bob on some string, then tie the wire to it and pull it through. Fishing line and sinkers works too.

As for the circuitry, the switches are in parallel, and run via a grey (I think from memory) wire which should cross the car underneath the dashboard. Just a thought though.... are the wires already in the pillar ready for the switch for the sliding door?

Yes when you remove the switch it even looks as though it's all hooked up but it would be a right royal pain I think to try and trace it back where it goes without pulling linings apart which I'm a bit scared to do!

You have to remember that the door switches are on the earth side of the light.

There is a power wire directly from the fuse panel to the light. The switch can either isolate this completely (fully off); link it to the door switches, any of which can earth the light to turn it on; or earth it manually.

Therefore, if you want to add extra door switches, all you have to do is run the wire from the new door switch(es) into any point between the existing door switches and the light. This wire runs from the LH door switch right across the dashboard to the RH switch, so its not hard to find. This wire is brown or brown/white, not grey as I originally thought.