Disabled driver
 

My brother is coming to South Africa for a long holiday later this year (by the way we have right hand drive cars). As he will be coming several times in the future it seemed very cost effective, rather than hiring a car, to buy a second hand, reliable, vehicle for which parts are readily available if required.

As he has only one arm, the left, he needed a car with power steering and automatic transmission as he can manage the steering with a knob fitted on the wheel.

After looking into the local market the ideal vehicle seemed to be a Mercedes. So I have bought a 1989 230E 124 series.

What I had neglected to take into consideration is that the indicator/lights/windscreen wiper control arm is on the right of the steering wheel.

Can anybody tell me whether it is worth considering moving the control assembly 180 deg around the steering column? (I know it would make the location of the speed cruise control difficult but this can be dispensed with anyway as it doesn’t seem to work too well).

Or could somebody give me any other suggestion to at least put some control for the indicators on the left side of the steering wheel.

I was thinking of a Rube Goldberg method of having a second stalk and some cables but that won't address the matter of the wiper and high beam switches. You might look into getting the column hardware from a LHD car.

The 230E steering wheel is probably big enough that he can keep it steady with his thigh as he reaches over for the stalk... however safe that is.

Sixto
95 S420
87 300SDL

Thanks for the suggestion but I think he's too short and fat to be able to reach over easily (probably kill me if he knew I said that).

Do left hand drive cards have the stalk on the left?

Yes they do.

Now the question is, does anyone know if the steering column is made for both LH and RH applications? -So it's just a matter of moving the stalk assemply to the other side?

Freestyler

richardhb, left-hand drive cars do have the turn signal/windshield wiper stalk and the cruise control stalk on the left side of the steering wheel. Seems like a simple swap at first glance, but more likely a major, expensive job to swap that portion of the steering column from a left-hand drive car. I doubt if many members or technicians regularly work on both left-hand and right-hand drive cars so you may have to contact the MB factory for advice.

Thanks Freestyler and Fred.

I'll get a mechanic that I know to strip of the plastic shield around the column and see whether it can be done.