X-Mailer: PCElm 3.1 (1.6 DIS)
Following the mention of Spitfire seat belts I thought I'd put in
my $0.02 worth. I own a 1976 Spit and bought it this summer. When I
got it I *thought* both seatbelts were dead since they didn't seem
to lock - I wasn't sure if they were original or not so I went to my
local Triumph body shop who said they had some new belts lying
around. Being strapped for cash I decided to have only the drivers side
done. The new one wasn't like the old one and didn't operate the
"Fasten seatbelts" sign which was a real shame (not that its useful!).
A bit latter I ordered another for the passenger side from the Triumph
Sports Six Club (in the UK) and decided to fit it myself. It was
identical to the one I'd just had fitted so I figured at least I'd have
a matching pair of working seatbelts.
When I went to fit the passenger side belt I found I couldn't get the
body of the existing one off mainly because I didn't have a wrench of
the right size. Whilst investigating the body I found the belt had
locked and couldn't be moved. Poking around inside I discovered why I
had though the belt(s) wasn't working in the first place - its not
an inertia reel mechanism at all. It operates from a small swing weight
like a pendulum so tugging on the belt will never lock it, only stopping
the car abruptly! So the upshot is that I didn't bother with fitting
the passenger belt (I did a test to confirm my theory and the passenger
didn't land up in hospital so I guess its ok!) and I now have one
original seat belt that operates the Fasten belts light.
The main thing is that I'm pissed off at the garage who fitted the
new one in the first place - they are Triumph specialists and at
no time said anything about the fact the existing one was perfectly ok.
Also I made the mistake of not getting the original off them after the
job so I'll probably have to go and buy a "new" original from Rimmer
Bros. All in all its been a very expensive process!
Simon Waddington | Misquote of the day:
waddy@vsfl.demon.co.uk | "Wow! I could really *be* on this Internet" Z.B.
|