Rear Center Seat Belt Stuck

[Kacers]

1999 Disco. Not mine - helping a friend. Have the rear seat back off and have the ratcheting mechanism free of the seat. It retracts in but will not pull out. I have the assembly partially apart but not sure how to completely dis-assemble and/or if this is even fixable.

Seems to be a common problem but haven't seen many posts where anyone fixes this other than getting a whole new assembly and seat belt.

Any advice?

AndrewT

 

[AU_88]

I had that problem too, now I just dont have a middle seat belt...

 

[lordkenyon]

Same thing on my DII (I assume you're talking about a 99 DII). When you have the mechanism apart, there's a centrifugal mechanism that if you remove will allow the seatbelt to function perfectly. It also still locks up if pulled quickly. I may have some pics somewhere to help. Or if you have a pic, I can prob. point it out.

 

[Kacers]

Same thing on my DII (I assume you're talking about a 99 DII). When you have the mechanism apart, there's a centrifugal mechanism that if you remove will allow the seatbelt to function perfectly. It also still locks up if pulled quickly. I may have some pics somewhere to help. Or if you have a pic, I can prob. point it out.

Any pics you have will be helpful. I see a ball thing that floats and pushes a plastic arm against the gear to stop it from turning. Is that the thing you removed?

AndrewT

 

[lordkenyon]

Any pics you have will be helpful. I see a ball thing that floats and pushes a plastic arm against the gear to stop it from turning. Is that the thing you removed?

AndrewT

I looked and couldn't find any pics. Must not of taken them (or not found them in the 5k+ photos). It's been a long time since I messed with it, but if you could post a pic of yours it might refresh my memory. I believe the ball/arm thing was the issue. It still locked properly when you pulled quickly. Try playing around a bit with it if you can and see what works.

As long as it locks properly when pulled quickly (like in an accident scenario) I don't see it being a safety issue. That one didn't have a pretensioner like the SRS system in the front seats.

 

[KevLar]

Be careful about permanently removing anything from the inertia reel assembly and then putting it back together ! Unlike Ikea furniture, there should not be any "extra" parts left over when you re-assemble a seat restraint system
I can't say for sure how your particular mechanism works, but the fancier inertia reels aren't just single axis systems like the older mechanisms, meaning that they are designed to lock the belt when forces other than forward deceleration are applied (e.g.: rolling) which might come in handy off-road !
I'd have to see the guts of the unit to figure out what's what. You might try using compressed air to blow out any dirt or other contaminants and see if that helps.
Kev

 

[Kacers]

I got it working. Removed the ball and arm which I believe to be the centrifugal or pendulum mechanism. The ball would always press on the arm causing the arm to engage the gear and lock up. It still locks when pulled quickly (as it should). Also re-adjusted the spring for the retrieval. Seems to be fine. I did not dis-asemble any of the inertia reels as it wasn't needed as thats not what was binding.

I may take mine off my '04 to compare before re-installing. Not sure how the assembly I removed was supposed to work and what broke. Its very clean and no sign of dirt or binding anywhere. But the ball in the centrifugal mechanism was just floating around and this didn't seem right.

AndrewT

 

[thomaskimura]

Had the same issue this weekend when I had to remove the cubby box panel. To remove the panel you need to un-bolt the spool from the body. Basically, just play around with it for an hour. Poke around with a screw driver, let it reel in and out some, lightly hold down the plastic assembly that looks like a guide where the belt comes out. Frankly, I have no idea what it was that fixed it. Listen closely and you can hear little noises from the spool when the inertia switch opens.

This happened to me once before with my center belt. I had dropped the seat and it locked up. That time I removed the belt thinking it was broken. Playing with it the following weekend it was fine.

Probably the best advice- if you have to remove a belt for whatever reason, just don't let it spool in more than a few inches.