Harness/seat belt mount help needed...

[jester911]

I posted this in the autocross/racing forum but looking for more help.

I am going to a 5 or 6 point harness set up in my car. The car is still going to be mostly street driven but I am planning on doing enough DE/track time to warrant some changes. I have installed a Das roll bar and am planning on installing a harness set up.

My main questions are what to do about sub belt mounting and also the inboard side lap belt mounts.

The stock seats had the seat belt recievers mounted to the rails. Since those won't be used I need to know the best way to make new mounts. i will be reinstalling the stock belts for street use so the mounts need to be dual purpose.

Also after much reading on the anti sub belt issue I also need to know what should be done for those as well. I intend on making the same mods to both sides. If I need to do some welding I have no problem with that. I just need some ideas for what some of you guys have done for your cars.
Any pics to add would be a bonus

[DW SD]

I mounted the lap belts in my five point harness to this seat bracket. I followed the directions of the harness MFG, as far as angles, distances, etc.

custom SPARCO seat mounts install w/ Pics

I took some of the brackets (bolt eyelet on one end and hole for belt to thread through on the other & looks loosely like a triangle) and welded the belt end to the seat mount. From there I used the bolt to attach the lap belts. It is in single shear, but a very large bolt (10mm), I think.

Downside is these seatmounts fit only me as they are fixed.

Doug

[Zeke]

In the past, I have used the roll bar bolts at the floor for the outboard lap belts and run a flat bar of steel continuously from one roll bar mount across the bottom to the other. This helps not only the bar, but provides a secure mounting point for the inboard belts. I drilled thru the floor to install the inboard lap belts into that steel. These are more or less in line with the belt when pulled up across the seat.

For the sub-belt, well, that seems to be changing, so I'll leave that alone for the moment. However, the thought occurs to me that the flat steel idea could be useful.

[don911]

For the inside seat belt mount, you can use a speedster seat belt bracket. This is a dealer item. Brey Krause also makes an inside seat belt bracket.
http://www.bkauto.com/porsche/r9005.php

If your pass seat is non power, the inside seat bracket can be removed and used as well. I'm using the brey krause brackets on my car.
If you use these brackets with after market sliders, I would be careful where you mount the bracket. The factory seat mounts that bracket between the seat rail and the seat. I would not do this with aftermarket sliders since I don't believe the sliders were designed to take the load. I would mount the bracket bracket between the sliders and the floor mount on aftermarket sliders. The problem with this set up is that the bracket does not move with the seat. I ended up tracking down non power factory sliders so I can mount the bracket the same as the factory set up.

[jester911]

I have considered using brackets to attach to the seat mounts but I really don't think it is enough for a track application. I believe it may need a more substantial mount. Milt, the Das bar attaches at the outboard seat belt mounts and with the hump and the distance between the two I don't see that as practical.

I am thinking of coming up with some type of thru the floor application with reinforcing underneath.
The sub belts will require this anyway. The new rules(if I read them right) will mandate this so no more brackets attached to the seat rails.
I really don't want to have to reinvent the wheel here but it looks like I will have to do some in garage engineering.

Keep the info coming. I am sure someone out there has crossed this bridge before.

[Zeke]

Originally posted by jester911
Milt, the Das bar attaches at the outboard seat belt mounts and with the hump and the distance between the two I don't see that as practical.

I didn't think about the DAS configuration. Doesn't mean you can't use a short flat bar under and across the tunnel. I don't know, attaching something to the side of the tunnel doesn't seem optimum to me. Also, drilling into the tunnel can be dicey.

Who else has some thoughts on the strength of the side of the tunnel?

[jester911]

Milt,I will give that some thought. I have to put the car up on stands so I can really visualize it. I may be able to come up with a configuration that covers the tunnel side mounts and the sub belt at the same time. Mmm.

[cbeers]

The factory part can be seen on this thread:

Carrera-Race Seats-Tunnel Side Harness Points

Pelican can get it for you or a dealer. It's very solid and I would assume strong. The only thing I can see it being a problem with would be of you run eye bolts and also have the central heater/climate control thing. Even then it would depend on how you use your car/ how tall you are etc. I am still using stock belts with SRDs and used this factory bracket. $25 I think.


Hope that helps...



-Chris

[jester911]

I do have the central heating control. The big problem I have though is relying on a bracket attached to the seat mount. This seems to be the weakest attachment point. The outside mount goes to the sill, the shoulder belts to a roll bar, the sub belts to something reinforced thru the floor and the tunnel side attached to an angle bracket attached to some fairly thin metal.

The concept of the harness is to be independent of the seat and its attachment to the floor. I just feel that if I am going to go to all the trouble of installing these safety items they should all be fairly equal in strength.

IMHO this is a weak link in this chain.

[don911]

When you figure out the inside mounting, please post the results. I went thru this myself and couldn't find a relatively easy solution.