Seat belt retractor

[longbeach]

The seat belts on my 86 K20 don't grab if yanked out. On my other cars a quick yank on the belt and it grabs. They retract fine. I lifted the plastic cover up some and I see a little weight with spring set up that if moved grabs the belt. Is there something I'm missing here. I lubed everything and it didn't help. Is there a way to fix this or do I need to replace??

 

[SquareRoot]

These are dual retractor systems. You wont find them new and aftermarket are inferior single retractor. They probably are in need of being removed, inspected and cleaned properly.
Quickly yanking the belt doesn't mean it's supposed to lock. Lateral G-force on the weight is what does it. Like when you hit a brick wall for example.

 

[longbeach]

Aha, that's kinda what I thought when I saw that little rig. But, wasn't sure. Thanks for the info.

 

[fast 99]

I did a lot of internet research on those. Because it is a safety device with associated liability it is very expensive or impossible to have anything done. Was a while ago, did find one place that would work on them but forgot who it was. Cost $250 per retractor so times that by 2 for each side. A lot of cases it is just a piece of litter in there. Take them off and clean really good.

 

[mibars]

I had some seatbelt issues a while ago and figured out that these style seatbelts does not react at all to sudden unspooling, they react only to G forces. There is some mystery device between spools that I didn't figured out the purpose, but it doesn't seem to do anything related to sudden yanking of belts.

Out of curiosity what do you mean by "retract fine"? All eight of retractors have force just to barely retract the belts, far from a snug fit of modern retracting seatbelts. Are yours the same?

 

[longbeach]

As far as retracting fine, I meant when I remove the belt they spool back fine. Certainly not with any force. And yes they do not snug up real tight when putting them on.

 

[CountKrunk]

Has anyone converted from 2 point to 3 point? I would like to move my back seats to modern 3 point seatbelts.

 

[BadBowtie]

So lowering the back of an otherwise stock truck could effect the "locking ratio" of said truck in an accident??

 

[plugugly]

my 87 shoulder belts have a tumbler device in them that cams a lever up to lock the belts. They retract when the door is open, and otherwise not very well. Its pretty annoying.