1977 280z Seatbelt rewebbing

[ckurtz2]

Hey guys,

I am rewebbing my seatbelt and ran into a problem For the life of me I can't get the new webbing through the small slot that is available. Is this thing supposed to disassemble further before I put the webbing in, or does anyone have experience on how to do this? I have tried tying twine to the belt and feeding it through the mechanism. Then I would tug on the twine to pull the belt through, but I still can't seem to do it. It is just too tight to get the belt to feed in that tight of a circle. 

I found this @Captain Obvious , but unfortunately, pictures are no longer available. 

I have pulled off the plastic pieces, but my latch mechanism works great, and the spring is in good order (was quite surprised when it exploded into a spaghetti mess. Did some reverse engineering to get it back. All good now).

Any help is appreciated, thank you!

 

 

 

[Captain Obvious]

Here's the pics I took of my seatbelt disassembly. First, a caveat... I didn't take these pics with the intention of using them for a how-to... I just had a dead belt with badly frayed webbing and thought I would take it apart to see how the whole thing worked. I figured I would take some pics along the way so I could refer to them again in the future if I ever needed to.

Second, these pics are from a 77, and I have no idea if they are the same on other years, but hopefully they will add some value. I also have pics of the assy before I popped off the side covers, but I'm not including those since we all know what that looks like.

Step1 - Wind the seatbelt as far as you can into the retractor assy to minimize the tension in the retractor clock spring. In other words, let the retractor spring pull in as much belt as it can before you loosen the side cover. Once you have the belt fully retracted, use a small screwdriver to pop off the side cover. Note that there will still be some spring tension so be careful. Do not let the side cover spin wildly after you pop it free. Hold the cover with your hand to make sure it does not spin and after you get the last retaining pin free, carefully rotate the side cover to release the spring tension. Count the number of turns it takes to release the tension so you know how many turns to wind it up when you put it back together.

Interesting to note that the retractor spring function is completely separate from the rest of the assy. That means for those of you guys with retractor spring problems, all you need to do is pop off that one side and replace the spring. You don't have to mess with the latching mechanism at all. In fact, for the shoulder belt portion, you probably don't have to take the assy out of the car. You can probably do that with the assy still attached to the strut tower.

Here's the retractor spring and cover after releasing the spring tension:

Step2 - Pop the side cover off the other sire. Here's the latching mechanism side:

Step3 - Pry off the little support arm:

Step4 - Pry off the latching mechanism:

Interesting to note that there isn't a whole lot that can go wrong with the latching mechanism. Probably the simplest thing that can go wrong is the tiny release spring can come off or break and then the latch will operate too easily or will not release at all.

Step5 - Pull the retaining pin that holds the take up reel into the bracket. Look down into the belt reel and you will see a retaining pin. Here's the pin fully installed:

Here's the pin pulled halfway out:

Here's the pin pulled all the way out:

Step6 - Pull out the center axle shaft and the take-up reel will come free. The belt is held into the reel by the center axle, so once the axle is removed, the belt webbing can be removed from the take-up reel:

Reassembly is the reverse of disassembly. 

[Captain Obvious]

Hope that helps!   

[ckurtz2]

@Captain Obvious beautiful! Thank you🙂

[Captain Obvious]

Glad to help. Hope you get it all figured out. If I were energetic, I'd reload those pics into that old thread. Maybe next time I'm allowed out.