How hard is it to rebuild a seatbelt?

[Guest Anonymous]

I want to rebuild my passenger side seatbelt. Any tricks, can it be done? Whats the process.

[dhs]

I think this is one area I would not recommend anyone do themselves because of the fear of failure at the wrong time. New belts/reels are still available I believe and I would go for that. If it is only cleaning, maybe, but I would not trust old webbing regardless.

[TobyB]

It's pretty easy, but it takes some time.

Basically, make really good notes on how it's assembled,

get some webbing and some really strong thread,

and have at it. I use a home sewing machine, and it works OK.

Now, what the DOT may say about this, I don't know. But I can guess.

In my case, I rationalize that new webbing done well is better than

a 40- year old belt that's long- dead. But that's my personal opinion.

Amusingly, we have to change the harnesses in our race cars every 5 years.

SCCA mandates every TWO.

Figuring that a race car spends 98% of its time in a garage or in a trailer,

what does that say for the strength of the belts in my 20 year- old truck?

t

[Guest Anonymous]

I think this is one area I would not recommend anyone do themselves because of the fear of failure at the wrong time. New belts/reels are still available I believe and I would go for that. If it is only cleaning, maybe, but I would not trust old webbing regardless.

Im a cheap bastard and the belts are in great shape. No rips or flaws could have been replace recently the trouble is on the passenger side the mechanisim that holds the belt coiled up doesn't want to release it except for small incriments, my wife has a fit fighting with it everytime she rides with me. She rarely goes on trips with me because she knows she has to fight the belt.

[O2guy]

I started a thread on this about 2-3 weeks ago. The final piece of advice I received was to wear a wide brimmed hat to cover my ears as I went thru the windshield. Cheap is good. New belts are cheaper than comming to my trauma unit and usually have better results. Be safe

[Jack]

Harder than it is to build about $150!

[scottt]

As I tried to disassemble my seatbelt about 190 feet of fine clock spring launched all over the garage, got twisted and broke. Took about 10 seconds.

A co-worker but aftermarket ones in fro about 79.00 ea, they work great.

[JohnN]

seatbelt into place????

I can't find it and everytime I've seen it I laugh my ass off

John N

[KFunk]

As I tried to disassemble my seatbelt about 190 feet of fine clock spring launched all over the garage, got twisted and broke. Took about 10 seconds.

A co-worker but aftermarket ones in fro about 79.00 ea, they work great.

10 seconds? Yours came out slowly. Mine came out explosively and in about a half second filled in the entire rear seat floor of my car.... and with the sharp edges... almost cut me in the process....

I actually did manage to wind it back up and put it back together.... it was not a fun job at all. And I still never accomplished my goal of fixing the same slow release problem.

So yeah, I just tell my passengers to pull real slowly....

[Beaner7102]

It gets me every time, LOL. Beaner7102

[Guest Anonymous]

Dude thanks for that clip. Wifey and I are crying over this. I fell out of my temperpedic and decided to buy some good seatbelts from someone or go the aftermarket route.

[Mike Self]

and irregulrly, the problem is in the lockup mechanism. It consists of a small pendulum that's free to move in a 360 degree arc. If it deviates from the vertical, it engages the lockup mechanism--as it's supposed to do during a sudden stop, for example. So if this pendulum isn't absolutely vertical, it'll exhibit symptoms as you describe.

So before you dismantle the whole seatbelt, make sure the reel assembly is absolutely vertical on its mount. It might take loosening the reel and gently moving it while trying to unreel the belt, until you find a position where it works properly.

I've had 'em apart--primarily to recoil the spring so the reel would take up the belt when released--and while it's doable, it's no picnic.

Good luck

mike