Smokest3r

Hey all,

A problem cropped up yesterday on me... the seatbelt wasn't retracting all the way, so therefore stayed locked... no problem, couple tugs on it and it retracted enough.

Today however, it retracted all the way, yet remained locked. Had to take the seat out, etc to get at the mechanism. It stays locked unless I manually unlock it... as soon as it starts retracting, its locked, even all the way in.

Is this something thats easy to fix, or am I better off ordering a new seatbelt mech for it? (75 Coupe)


Eric

Chris@VetteFinders

Welcome to the forum!

I'd say the best thing to do is have it repaired by SSnakeOyl or another seat belt vendor. I wouldn't try to repair it myself if I were you. How are your belts? Could they use replacing also, "while your at it"?

Aerovette

My 75 did/does the same thing. As tacky as it looks, I leave the cover off under the seat and have had to get my fingers down there and unlock it. It's really not safe. I'd get'em repaired or replaced.


[Modified by Aerovette, 12:28 AM 2/26/2002]

lyndave75

My '75 was doing the same thing, plus the springs in the retracters lost thier tension.I ended out taking the whole retracter apart, cleaning, lubing everything. You may not have to, but on mine the hook on the end of the spring was slipping out causing the loss of tension when the belt was pulled out. I pop rivited the spring to the plastic cover and rewound the spring. Now they work like new. Warning!!! be very careful when prying off the plastic spring cover ( "Do Not Remove" is stamped on it, but I'm too curious to heed those warnings) the spring still has pressure on it with the belt all the way in. Pry the cover off just enough to get the three little tabs out, keep down pressure on the cover and slowly rotate it to release the spring pressure before lifting cover away from retracter. you may want to count the turns to have an idea of how much preload will be nessessary when reassembling. I started without a clue of what I was doing and it really is quite simple when you look at all the pieces to see how it works. Hopefully the clean and lube will cure your problems, good luck with it.

Mack

One of mine was locked up with about half of the belt extended when I got the car. I took it out and shot the retractor mechanism down with WD-40, working the belt as much as I could. It finally began working correctly. The other belt was locked in the fully retracted position. It was completely rusted and I never got it working... Had to buy a new belt.