Seat belt/harness help

Bags · 09-24-2002, 05:26 PM

I just started the process of removing the passenger seat to replace it with racing seats(87 carrera) when I realized the inside lap belt was attached to the seat. I dont have a harness yet as I am still debating on using the rear seat belt mounts and a harness bar of using the Brey Krause harness truss and mounting the belts to that. Anyway, what is the solution for the inside belt attachment? I hear it is not good to mount it to the seat rail. Does anyone have experience or a good tech article to point me to? Also what is anyones experience with the Brey Krause setup?
Thanks
Mike

TimT · 09-24-2002, 05:38 PM

Brey krause makes good stuff. Very Impressive. You should mount your belts to the tubs... the seat mounts can fail and that is a problem. One thing you should do is get harnesses that also close above your sternum... the shoulder belts are useless unless you can keep them over your shoulders!

jwill911 · jwill911's Garage

I also have an `87 Carrera. I still have the factory seats, but have lusted after the Recaro SRD. I stressed over drilling holes in my beautiful car until I realized the only right way was to drill the holes. I drilled two behind each seat, used BF washers and nyloc nuts. Double nutting is not legal in our region and when I replaced them I found out why. They were loose!. I got the Simpson harnesses with the sternum strap because of the factory seats. I use a Weltmeister harness bar, the harnesses anchor to the rear seat belt mounts replaced with forged eys bolts.

89911 · 09-24-2002, 07:08 PM

With the proper adaptors, the seat mount is as strong as one single eye bolt drilled into thin sheet metal. I have an 89 with Recaro SRD's. Since I still wanted my Original shoulder belts, I didn't want to omit the factory mounts. Besides, what is stronger, one eye bolt or 6 allen bolts mounted to a welded frame?

Bags · 09-25-2002, 07:48 PM

Dalton;
I agree, I would like to keem the original mount also but the inside belt is attached to the seat. Is there an adapter that can be used to re-attach it to the seat mount?
Mke

89911 · 09-25-2002, 07:54 PM

Hey, don't confuse me with Dalton, that bad ass "cooler" from the fantastic cult classic, "RoadHouse"! The adaptors you but have the mounting point to retain your old belts. www.daveturner.com is where I got mine when I purschased my SRD's

tomt · 09-26-2002, 06:03 AM

I too was looking at the BK bar, and ended up getting a similar product from Speedware in the Seattle area. They also make a bar specifically for Targas and use only factory mounting points (it's really a work of art).

The bar has extra pieces that mount down to a very nice bracket which shares the outside seatbelt mount. Both the Sparco lap belt and the stock 3 point belt use the original mounting point. The inside mounting point shares the 2 belts nicely as well.

For the sub belt, they had a bar pre drilled for Porsche/Sparco/Recaro rails that goes between the rails and the seats. I still have factory seats for now, but SRD will be coming next year (I've well exceeded my P-car budget this year). I'll have an inside belt mount added to the SRD's when I get them to keep the same set up.

The harness bar is pretty thick and a single piece -- designed to have the shoulder straps mounted directly. So... all stock mounting points, and some extra Targa chassis stiffening in the process AND no holes in the car!

I'll post some pictures later today if interested.
Rgds,
TT

Wil Ferch · 09-26-2002, 12:16 PM

Guys:
Warning!.... do not install shoulder harnesses directly to a harness bar, unless you're only doing low speed ( parking lot, gymkhanna, autocross) events. This is very unsafe for DE or track events , when higher speeds are the norm. Of course, mounting directly is only OK with a harness bar designed for this purpose from the outset..like the BK TRUSS bar ( not their harness bar). Better would be to drape the harnesses across the bar ( through the wire loops) and back down to the rear seat belt area..where you use eyebolts that replaced the seat belt bolts. Eyebolts are 7/16-20 UNF thread ( NOT the similar looking 11 mm metric...they're not metric !).
For the front seats, use an eyebolt for the lap belts on the outboard positions. If you use them on the inboard positions, this may ( or may not) work. Some cars, like my dual-purpose 85 Carrera will have center heater console interference. Use the Brey-Krause piggy back eyebolt that mounts over the stock receptacle. This way you can use both stock and racing belts. For the 5th strap, you can use the "C" shaped truss that runs across the seat that mounts the stock power seat motors ( at least for my 85 Carrera. I'm told the 87 and later cars use a flimsy stamping in this location.).
For racing seats, you can either modify the stock seat tracks ( that use an inboard "boss" to mount the stock and/or piggy-back receptacle)..OR..find the RS America part that is a separate piece that has the receptacle boss. This RS America piece then bolts to the seat track.

--Wil Ferch

tomt · 09-26-2002, 04:13 PM

I'd done plenty of research (here on this board!) and knew to make sure that the bar I purchased had been designed to mount the shoulder harness directly

Great advise... absolutely be sure that your bar has been designed for on-bar mounting before doing so!
Rgds,
TT