how to revive old seat belts?

[dlb]

the rear seat belts in my corolla suck. they don't stop when tugged on hard, and they don't retract worth a dang. i've never looked inside a seat belt mechanism but i'm betting there is some kind of tooth that flicks positions to jam a gear when the belt is tugged hard, and the pivot point of that tooth needs to be lubed. for retracting, i'm guessing there is a spring in there that has either gotten weak or popped itself out of place so i will have to take a look and see what i can do about that.

has anyone else looked at these? any advice for either of these problems?

i realize seat belts are something most people would not advise messing with so let's just say all contents of this thread are purely theoretical and never to be put into practice.

[marlinh]

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=11688&p=88771&hilit ... lts#p88771

What about this post?

[dlb]

i took mine apart and dirt and lack of lube were not a problem. it looks like the return spring is just tired but i might be able to tighten it another wind or two. will post my results.

the good news on the locking is that they actually appear fine. the locking mechanism is first activated by a single ball bearing at the bottom of the unit. it normally sits at the lowest point of an indentation but when it's jiggled or the unit is leaned one way or another, the bearing rolls up and out of the lowest point. when it rises, it touches and moves a metal finger up that catches in some plastic teeth on the winding mechanism, preventing it from winding further. at that point, some internal parts i can't see move a small amount and then cause the actual lock-up.

that makes me think that it's designed so that when the car is stationary, the belt can be pulled out and retracted freely, but once the car is moving and the bearing is moving around or even just vibrating, the belt will lock up if pulled.

[dlb]

well, i was almost able to tighten up the return spring on the seat belt but not quite. the inner end of the spring locks in a plastic piece that does rotate. the bottom portion of this plastic piece locks into the seat belt winding mechanism when it's all assembled. the problem is that i can't get any tension on the spring without it unwinding back to its relaxed position when i reinstall the return spring assembly back onto the rest of the unit -- in the split second between getting my fat fingers out of the way and pushing the return spring assembly back in place, it unwinds itself and i'm left with the same limp, "i'll only go back in if you help me" seat belts.

i tried holding the center piece with a screw driver as i pushed the assembly into place, and i tried turning the rest of the spring with the housing while the center piece was locked in but the housing hits stuff on the seat belt, so neither of those worked. at this point i'm admitting defeat but i'm sure there's a smarter work around that i just haven't thought of. i will google the hell out of this and hope to find an answer.

[Petros]

you may have to make a simple tool to hold the spring in place while you assemble it. it should not take much of a tool, something smaller than your fingers to hold it in place until the housing is locked together. It should not be too hard to make from a nail, and some pounding/bending, grinding, etc.

[4wdEconoBox]

I unbolted my mechanism the other day and couldn't even figure out how to get the clear plastic covers off the sides...I mean I understand the concept of how to take it apart, but I couldn't get it to do what I wanted it to, so I gave up haha....

[dlb]

if the tercel belt mechanisms are basically the same as the corolla's, you will notice several spots where the plastic spring housing is fastened to the overall seat belt mechanism. there is a small plastic pin in each of those spots so tap the pin out with a very small punch and hammer and then pop the housing off the mechanism. then there are a few clips that fasten the inner and outer plastic portions of the housing. i made the mistake of separating them early on and the belt retracting spring came flying out in a tangled mess. took me a long time and many attempts to untangle it, recoil it, and get it back in the housing. i recommend working on this inside your house so if anything explodes, you have a better chance of finding the pieces. i was digging in the dirt for a long time to find everything again.

the problem of creating more tension on the spring is that the inner piece that rotates and the spring end sits in needs to be held with the additional tension as you reattach it to the seat belt mechanism, but this is tough to do since you have to let go of that inner rotating piece to put the housing on the mechanism. the second you let go of it, the spring unwinds back to its resting position. the rotating piece is also very difficult to grip due to its shape. i'm sure if you tried holding it with needle nose pliers or a screwdriver as you quickly slapped the spring housing back onto the mechanism, you would eventually get SOME increased tension on the belt but that's a really lousy and frustrating way to go about it.