Anyone ever taken apart/serviced the factory seatbelts?

[Guest bastaad525]

well i bought some used factory stock seat belts for my '72 the other day. they looked in very good shape, but now not even a week later, the driver side one is having a problem. It is retracting very slowly, which is annoying.. I removed it and looked at it and wondering if I can take it apart to clean and lubricate it? It has two plastic caps at the ends but they say specifically "Do Not Remove". I'm afraid if I take them off the sprung innards will pop out and I wont be able to put it back together.

 

Any recommendations? Should I pull them apart? Should I spray something ... somewhere? Like WD40 or silicone spray? Or jsut try to exchange them?

[mom'sZ]

I read your post a couple of days ago. Since no one else wants to touch it, I'll give it a try. I was working on my 77 awhile back and one of the belts pretty much fell apart in my hand. Couldn't be helped, had to take it apart. Under the plastic cover is indeed a spring. If you take it apart, you have to wind the spring up enough to fit back under the cover. Sort of held the end in the center with thumb and forefinger and spun the spring around until it is tight enough to fit back under the cover. once under there you can put the end of the spring in the slot it goes in and spin the plastic cover to get the rest. Once it's nice and tight snap the cover back on. Before replacing the spring, clean and lube the assembly. A note about WD40 - love the stuff, have a giant can outside, BUT... it is more of a penatrant then a lube. I like it for breaking bolts loose and cleaning stuff up. But it eventually dries... completly, leaving no lube behind. I've seen people spray it on door hinges or a door lock, works great at first ,but a month later, it's worse. Use the WD40 to rinse the junk out of the assembly, then some white lithium grease to lube. There is a spring loaded plate which catches on the ratchet teeth, work it with you fingers as you rinse with WD40. Spool the belt all the way out and back in a bunch of times. Now mine works better then it ever did.

**WARNING** do this at your own risk. This is a sealed safety item which you should never mess with. I did this to mine because the car will eventually be used on the race track only and will use a racing harness. But Florida has a seatbelt law and I wasn't going to replace it only to throw it away in a few months. Racing harness is not an option on a street car so buying another stock seat belt would probably be best. Sorry for long post, hope this helps.

[Sparky]

there are also several companies that specialize in rebuilding classic/vintage seatbelts. its cost prohibitive though, might as well buy four points all around. some upholstery shops will also re-web belts but again, its not cheap..