Hello Listers:
Pasted below is a copy of a note I wrote last fall about what I ran into
fixing my seatbelts. I offer this as information to anyone who may be
getting ready to pop open a set of retractors, and what you may find.
I am doing a 73 tr6, and the belts were very, very poor. I took off the
cover plate with the intention of replacing the belt with belt from the
junk yard, but the spring caught me by surprise and jumped all over the
place. By very carefully opening up the other one I way able to figure out
how to get it back. I had some of the best guys at work (I am an engineer)
trying to figure out how to put the spring back into the housing. Here is
what I found:
The spring when released will want to curl up into a circle.(Many circles)
To reinstall you need to realize that the spring is (and this is hard to
explain in print) inside out. In other words, the natural shape you see in
the free state is not correct. The spring must be wound in a direction
opposite from what you see. When I opened the second one I removed the
three small screws, while holding the cover on with my hand. (Hind sight
would make this a two person job.) Then I slid a thin 1" wide putty knife
in between the cover and the spring. BE CAREFUL. The spring will lay there
and you may think that it is going to stay put by itself. It won't. It may
only take a force of 1 ounce to hold the spring in place, but if you let
the putty knife up 1/4 of an inch the spring will do its best to jump on
the floor. I nearly lost the second one because of the above. But I did
hold it. Then by looking inside I could see how the spring was configured
inside the plastic "carrier".
That takes care of the spring.
Now, the belt. I found out that some boat trailer winches now use a nylon
webbing instead of a cable like when I was a kid. This webbing is almost
identical to the seatbelt webbing in the TR. I bought a 20 foot piece at
the boat supply store for $10.00. It comes with a cast hook attached, You
need about 17 or 18 feet , as I remember. for both. Cut the nylon to
length using a hot knife attachment on a soldering iron. Then you can put
the retractor in a vice, pull the belt clear out, lock the system in this
position by using a small wooden wedge on the side with the latching parts,
cut the old belt off, use it as a patern for a new piece, (make a sketch of
the belt routing through the brackets, and then sew the belt together with
heavy waxed thread that you can get at a shoe repair shop. The quality of
the stitch job will depend upon the skill of the person doing the sewing.
My wife did it, and it looks ok. Of course that end will never see the
light of day again, most likly. The other end will be exposed. But most
people do not examine the stitching on a seat belt.
So, for 10 bucks and a little work, the belts are now brand new. I
repainted the housing of the belt retractor with some paint from Rust-Oleum
that I had never seen before. It makes what is called a "Hammered Finish"
in silver. It looks very good. Most big hardware stores would have it.
I hope this helps you.
Tim Hickey
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