Rebuilding seat belts

[mikester]

Has anyone ever rebuilt their seatbelts or replaced the tensioner spring that winds them back up?

Just curious, thinking about it myself...belts are in pretty good condition but they are pretty slow to rewind - if at all on their own.

I remember reading somewhere to NEVER take that thing apart because the tensioner spring is pretty dangerous...fair enough...

Thanks guys, I'm going to search the back posts now...

[Dave at Pelican Parts]

You don't wanna replace that spring. Ever.

You don't wanna let it get loose if you can possibly avoid it. If you do, you will want--
1) Good eye protection
2) Thick leather gloves
3) Sacrificial piece of wood to block the side of the spring, or some metal tool that you can use for a similar purpose
4) Lots of patience
5) The willingness to do the job several times over
6) Lots of Neosporin for the times that you forget to put on #2 above...

Try cleaning the belts in a mild detergent solution. Just the cloth parts of the belts. You can use a big black "binder clip" to hold them once you've pulled them out. This often helps the retracting action.

Another trick is to just open the sides of the reel a teeny tiny amount (I never remember which side is the spring and I always open the wrong side!) and shoot a little bit of oil in. Use one of the decent spray-type oils with the little red straw, that will let you shoot it into the guts of the mechanism. That can help lubricate the ratchet and other works.

--DD

[mikester]

Wow Dave, that was fast.

Thanks, I read in a back post that 924 belts bolt right in...that true to your knowledge?

Reliability of stock seat belts

[Dave at Pelican Parts]

Frankly, I'm not sure. I think I remember reading that the locating sharp metal stud (not threaded, but kind of like a stud that has been sharpened to a point) is not in the right place.

Ditto with Rabbit seat belts.

But no direct experience at using either.

--DD

[HMeeder]

Like Dave says; Be extra carefull with that puppy.

If you somehow foolishly take apart the thinner of the two housings, be prepared to lose and eye or fingertip.

In fact after spending the better part of an afternoon putting the genie back in the bottle (the thinner one houses a tightly wound spring that if you release it will whip out and turn inside out. It will ratnest itself and is quite challenging to rewind.)

The thicker of the two housings is completely harmless. It houses a kind of pendulum deal that locks the reel whenever it isn't in a vertical position. It also houses a cam lock deal that collects all kinds of lint and crud that is causing your reel to bind up. This half of the reel is totally rebuildable I found mine to work great after I finished it.

Do not, repeat do not (dare I say it again?) DO NOT take apart the thinner part of the reel housing. Even if you do get it apart and back together again, you gain nothing for your aggravation. Like Dave said you could try to shoot some lubricant in there, but be ever so careful if you do!

My work here is done

[Amark]

Be careful that thing will put your eye out!

Nothing gained is an understatement. Great way to waste a Sunday afternoon. I re-wound mine 2 or 3 times & never could get it to work right.

Found a place called Professionally Engineered Products in Los Osos, CA that will rebuild them. Rebuilt retractors new receivers & new webbing. Kind of pricey, something like $280.00 for the pair.


They look like brand new. After a couple of years the Drivers belt started getting lazy on the retraction though.

Mabe the 944 mechanisms have a stronger spring ??

Mark

73 2.0
Tucson, AZ

[Amark]

Link to above:


http://www.peparts.com/

[mikester]

Yeah, bearing the warnings in mind - I won't be taking mine apart.

However, I did find this:

http://dgi.net/914/maintenance/seatbelt.html

I think I might do some more research on it...

[Scooter311]

Hey Mikester
Yeah, what they said! It took me 3 hours to get mine back together, and I was just happy to have the little bugger back in the car, I didn't care how it worked. If you do find yourself in the horrible predicament, just remember that the spring gets rewound the opposite of how it wants to coil up on its own. (does that make sense?) I found that out after doing the whole thing twice, arrrgh..... I think that with a saint's patience and an extra set of hands, you can actually get it to work well, but good luck trying to swindle someone else into that nightmare.
Cheers,
Jeff

[John Rogers]

Yes, the 924 belts will bolt in and they are usually available at salvage yards for $5 or so. I replace both the belts on our 1974 a couple of years ago with nearly new condition belts from a wreck. Good luck.

[sammyg2]

LOL BTDT, never again.

[douglas robbins]

I have a 1970. Will I be able to bolt in the later style belts that retract and that have those stiff belt locks that stick straight up near the arm rest (instead of the floppy VW style belt locks)?

[HMeeder]

Douglas;

The bosses and little pockets in the firewall that the reels live in weren't part of the body work until 1972. The retractors were added to the car about mid-year of the '72 run.

My car came with the old style belts (it was built in October of '71 which makes it a very early example of the run) but the body work was ready for the swap to the new belts. Karmann probably had a pile of the old belts still sitting around and instead of throwing them away, installed them until they were all gone.

To my knowledge, the '72 is the only car you can easily retrofit the retracting belts.