After cleaning my carpets, the drivers seat belt retractor started acting up and trying to latch with simple pulling. I can manually over ride the latching by pushing down on the metal tab under the retractor, but this is not a long term fix. Anybody ever rebuilt their retractor? Anything I should look for that caused this to act up all of a sudden? Thanks, Doug
Hi doug, The drivers retractor on my 77 was exhibiting some of the same problems, (don't know the cause), so i thought i'd have a go at fixing it. Removed it from the car and proceeded to carefuly grind off the swedged case material retaining the cover on the retractor. As i was easing the cover back, just a tiny bit, (5 mm), the spring JUMPED out of the case and proceeded, (very rapidly) to assume the size and shape of a grapefruit. Clearly, I missed something on the removal process. I now have a 3 inch 4 point harnes on the drivers side. Forewarned, chris
Doug, Not sure this is your problem, but I learnt yesterday that it helps a lot to have the reel line up with the seat belt. Had my passenger belt lock up constantly. Took a closer look and it was pulling of the reel at an angle. Loosened the mounting screw and aligned the reel. Now it seems to work almost flawlessly. Thomas
That was fairly simple to fix. After unbolting the retractor and unwinding the belt all the way, I used about 1/4 can of WD40 to flush out the dirt, then used a teflon lube to flush out the WD40, as WD40 will turn onto a gummy residue, then hard varnish over time. They seem to work properly again. Thanks, Doug
mine was doing the same about 10 years ago, i jsut sprayed it with wd40 on the wheel mechanism without taking it apart - and it has been great since.
Glad to hear that's all it takes...some CAREFUL cleaning. Now if I could just figure out how to do same for my Mondial...the retractors are buried in the sides next to the rear seats.
