I have a few different cars that the seatbelts have become slow to retract on. Miata, chevy truck, and minivan.
Can i regrease the retracors or something? Tired of them getting caught in the doors. And they dont tension like they used to when being worn.
(If you can't tell, im finally getting on my to do list now that the challenge is over)
I heard on here that cleaning the belt thoroughly and then treating it with sail-kote would make it work smoothly. I did that on my Lexus but with some dry silicone lube instead of the sail-kote and it worked pretty well. I bet sail-kote would have worked better but I was being cheap.
If they don't lock up properly in reaction to reel speed and/or movement, then you have to replace the mechanisms. If they do and they're just slow to retract, you could try opening up the mechanism and spraying some silicone lube in there. Try not to get it on the belt - it won't damage the belt, but you probably don't want your belt to be greasy.
Lack of lubrication may not be the problem though, it could be that the clockspring that powers the retraction has weakened, and replacement is the only solution there (usually replacement of the entire reel mechanism, replacement springs are only made for valuable classics).
In reply to GameboyRMH :
Luckily they all lock properly. Ill try the cleaning and lubrication approach.
Thanks y'all
In reply to Dusterbd13 :
You just gave me a project to work in this weekend. Thank you. Mine doesn't retract at all, I'll need to do some investigating.
dculberson said:I heard on here that cleaning the belt thoroughly and then treating it with sail-kote would make it work smoothly. I did that on my Lexus but with some dry silicone lube instead of the sail-kote and it worked pretty well. I bet sail-kote would have worked better but I was being cheap.
Can you elaborate on the cleaning process and lube process you used?
Nick (Bo) Comstock said:In reply to Dusterbd13 :
You just gave me a project to work in this weekend. Thank you. Mine doesn't retract at all, I'll need to do some investigating.
You're welcome. I think. Or im sorry, depending on which voice i read your post in.
In reply to Dusterbd13 :
No it's a good thing. I'm going out of my mind with boredom but lack the funds to do any real work on it. I need something to do other than sit around waiting for the weekend to be over so I can go back to work.
If you were closer I have a really long list of things you can work on with my money. Good luck with your seatbelts this weekend.
Many moons ago when I was young and dumb(er) I couldn't see any reason why the seat belt mechanism on my 1976 Beetle should have been too complicated to clean and lubricate, since they didn't retract themselves. Boy, did I waste a bunch of time failing to make them work any better and, although the intervening decades have blurred the details, I seem to remember having difficulty just getting them back together to their previous, poorly-functioning state.
In reply to Dusterbd13 :
If I were closer I'd be there.
Tackled this today. I pulled the assembly out and extended the belt all the way and soaked real good with my fabric cleaner, scrubbed it with a brush then wiped it with a micro fiber. After that I soaked it with hot tap water and wiped with a clean micro fiber. It was a hot windy day so I just laid it on the roof to dry.
This is what the rags looked like after. They were clean previously
The mechanism looked fairly clean so I just blew it out with some compressed air.
Did it help the belt retract? Well no. No it didn't. If anything it's a little worse. But at least the belt is much cleaner.
I pulled my belts out all the way then put a (gentle) spring clamp on them at the top so they would stay extended. Then I dropped the belt in a bucket of hot water and simple green and let it soak for an hour or two. Then I wrung it dry and repeated the soak and wrung it dry again. After letting it dry all the way I soaked it with dry teflon spray like this:
but I've heard sail kote works better.
this all added up to making the belt retract on its own when it had never done so since buying the car. It wasn't like a new belt but it worked way way better than before.
In reply to dculberson :
You are the man. Hopefully i can try this on the miata belts this week
As a side note, I'm curious. Racing harnesses have an expiration date, if I'm correct. Do seat belts in cars have one?
No, factory seat belts are " good" forever or at least the life of the car. Drives me nuts that I could run my 31 year old 3 point factory belts in my car at the track but the 5 point belts that are far superior have to be replaced every 2-5 years. Insurance no it all's hard at work. I will agree that if I was driving the track car every day that after 5 years they should probably be replaced. However most enthusiast's are lucky I they can go to 8-10 events per year and the rest of the year the car sits in a garage or enclosed trailer.
I had this issue with my NC Miata. One of the Miata forums suggested Armor All. So, I pulled the belt out and used a binder clip to make sure it didn't retract (you know, Murphy's Law and all that). Then I rubbed a bunch of Armor All into the belt and let it dry for a while. The belts retracted nicely after that.
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