LEG AMPUTATION - HAND CONTROLS

[Dennis Nicholas]

   
   
I have just had to have my right leg amputated just above the knee so am now looking at alternative ways of controlling brakes and accelerator so I can continue rebuild of my Nippy special.
Brakes are Morris Minor Lockheed hydraulics.
I have a Mini (MK!/11?) pedal box which bolts under the Nippy horizontal bulkhead.  The end of each pedal finishes in a short leaver that takes the forked end of a pushrod that will act vertically up into mini brake master cylinder.
The carb on the 1275 BMC A+ engine is to be a weber The current accelerator pedal is a standard one cut so as to take a bowden cable through the vertical bulkhead (as per the MM).
I do not know yet what prosthesis I can get on my stump.   I am just looking for ideas for operating the brakes and throttle.
All ideas welcome......maybe a drawing of how someone has overcome this.

I have access to welding and can usually make things up, but am not so good at design.

   

[Duncan Grimmond]

It may seem a strange question but will you be able/comfortable to squeeze with your thighs? Perhaps a motorcycle front brake lever(or even a rear) operating a cylinder in or below the seat?
Used motorcycle brake parts are relatively easy to obtain and not too costly and flexible lines can be kept out of the way of other vital bits...

[Howard Wright]

Hi Dennis

So sorry to hear about your medical problems.

I wonder if you could rig a hand accelerator through the steering column in place of the advance retard levers. A bit like the Morgan three wheelers. You might need an earlier column depending on the age of your Nippy. It should be possible to attach the original Bowden cable to a quadrant on the bottom of the column.

Brake wise I wonder if  a ‘second handbrake’ (such as a Morris Minor or Mini) operating a master cylinder behind the seats?

Just suggestions but it’s quite an interesting design problem that might benefit from specialist input?

Cheers

Howard

[Peter Butler]

Dennis,

You have my sympathies and very best wishes - Good Luck.

I have two Speedy/75 cars, both of which I used to drive with enthusiasm until I suffered a serious Stroke about 20 years ago, which affected my right leg. I cannot drive either of them now. Indeed, I do not fit. When I try there is the problem of size - they seem to have narrowed - and there is also the steering column which prevents access to the right-hand side pedals by the left foot.

So, I await with interest some suggestions on this topic which I can use to fix my dilemma.

I had a friend fit a motorcycle hand throttle onto the steering wheel, which was not satisfactory for various reasons, but I never thought to try putting it on the steering column. 

As ever,

Peter Butler.

[GK5268]

Someone was selling a steering wheel/column mounted vacuum operated clutch servo (for the clutch obviously) about a year or so ago (may even be shown on here), given that you are going to have to adapt doing things differently, why not re-learn to use the left leg to do the accelerator & brake pedals and concentrate on just adapting the clutch to a hand control, reduces the amount of work required and the clutch clearly worked as it was fitted to car!

Good luck & best wishes with your recovery.

[Alan Osborne]

Dennis,

Sorry to hear about your situation.

Just to add to the overall thinking; we are the current guardians of the Harold Biggs special. Harold Biggs suffered from worsening MS and had the car adapted for hand controls. He had the car fitted with an extended hand throttle from the centre of the steering column to the right hand and a hand clutch lever mounted on the steering column for his left hand. The car still has an extended brake lever operated by the left hand. The car has coupled cable brakes and we still tend to use this handbrake for general braking.

Hope this helps.

Alan

[andrew34ruby]

Dennis I'm interested that you are fitting an A series engine into a seven. What gearbox are you using please?

[jpsmit]

As mentioned, sorry to hear of the amputation yet grateful that you are determined to continue with an active hobby lifestyle! I realize it is controversial but, in this scenario it seems like a conversion to electric could make a lot of sense. You could have simple hand controls and much easier use.

[Dennis Nicholas]

Andrew -  Gearbox is a Toyota T50 5 speed.  This was chosen many years ago when BMC boxes had become difficult to source/repair and were aimed at Morris Minors. You bought a kit of parts which included the bell housing to mate to the  engine.  
Nippy was already running with an A 948 engine and gearbox (very easy to fit) when piston broke rings and cheap T50 became available and a low milage 1275 A+. Beauty of a box.....I was interested in lower cruesing engine speed with the 15 inch wheels I used.  Still used 19 inch for MCC trials.  The floor has to be cut away a bit, but someone had previously butchered it badly so I just tidied up and made a new cover.  The wider T50 box needed bit more floor taken away but again just made another cover.  Still enough foot room and even have a VW 2 speed heater above cover...........but now some rethinking may be required.

Dennis

[andrew34ruby]

Andrew -  Gearbox is a Toyota T50 5 speed.  This was chosen many years ago when BMC boxes had become difficult to source/repair and were aimed at Morris Minors. You bought a kit of parts which included the bell housing to mate to the  engine.  
Nippy was already running with an A 948 engine and gearbox (very easy to fit) when piston broke rings and cheap T50 became available and a low milage 1275 A+. Beauty of a box.....I was interested in lower cruesing engine speed with the 15 inch wheels I used.  Still used 19 inch for MCC trials.  The floor has to be cut away a bit, but someone had previously butchered it badly so I just tidied up and made a new cover.  The wider T50 box needed bit more floor taken away but again just made another cover.  Still enough foot room and even have a VW 2 speed heater above cover...........but now some rethinking may be required.

Dennis

Thanks Dennis, when I've considered an A series the problem seemed to be the length of the A series gearbox. Tail of gearbox looked as though it would mean doing away with the brake cross shaft and result in a very short propshaft.