all, seatbelt is not pulling out of the drivers side retractor...never has since i bought the car...i would like to get this working...any ideas on what the problem could be..is the retractor easily removed and opened up?? it pulls out just a bit, maybe 1" and then the mechanism locks up...won't budge.. thanks for replies...
i had the exact problem in my carb 308. the mechanism would stick and i would have to fiddle with it for a long time to get all the belt out. I just used wd40 on the spool mechanism and latches in the retractor, and have not had a problem since. i did this with the mechanism still on the car. hope this helps. john
my car is a carb 308...79GTS **does the retractor housing just pull off to gain access to the innerds?? i am not at home to look at the retractor setup.. i will try the wd40 trick.. thanks...
The way these things work is, there is a little "pendulum" like weighted structure that typically hands straight down. The seatbelt retractor mechanism has a locking device that, when this pendulum is off center (like it gets when you stop, accelerate hard, or turn a corner in a spirited manner) the locking mechanism will engage. One possible problem, then, is that this pendulum is no longer hanging down when the car is neutral/balanced (like it should). Another explanation is that the lock mechanism itself has failed and got stuck "Shut", though I'm not sure if this is possible by design... --Mike