[DeTomaso] 3pt seat belt setups

[Larry - Ohio Time Corp.]

Then Asa Jay, a kind soul on this list,  donated his old belts to Ron in 
Cleveland. I used them to fix Ron's car. Ron's old belts were then donated 
to someone else on the list...

And it goes on and on.

Larry - Cleveland

----- Original Message ----- 
From: <asajay at asajay.com>
To: <detomaso at realbig.com>
Sent: Friday, March 23, 2007 3:19 PM
Subject: Re: [DeTomaso] 3pt seat belt setups


> Um, I don't think so Jack.
>
> When I first purchased my Pantera, the passenger seat belt would not
> retract.  A kind soul on this list donated a used set of belts that
> still worked.  I don't remember having to sew anything, and they
> didn't come pre-attached to any plates.
>
> There is a small seat belt -funnel- that attaches to the larger plate.
>  Remove that and I believe there is a small slit in it so you can
> remove it from the belt.  Then, you -have- to remove the plate in
> order to get the clearance to remove the belt and buckle.  If you
> don't remove the plate, you can't get the buckle through (I don't
> think, but I could be wrong).
>
> I chucked those little belt funnels years ago and trimmed the the
> larger hole in the plate with some alligator grommet.  The buckles do
> not fall through, but I'm sure you can get them through once you
> remove the plate and futz with the buckle.
>
> It's driving me nuts, so you know I'll have to double check that when
> I get home.
>
> This whole thing sounds like a good article for the newsletter.  Not
> that I'm volunteering.  :)
>
>
> Asa Jay
>
>
>
>
> Quoting JDeRyke at aol.com:
>
>>  In a message dated 3/23/07 8 58 49, matt.bradley at tx.rr.com writes:
>>
>>
>>
>>  <I haven't looked inside the stock retractor well yet to see what it 
>> looks
>> like in there.  I'm wondering how a replacement retractor would feed 
>> through
>> the stock plate.  I'd think you'd have to be able to remove the belt from 
>> the
>> new retractor, feed it through the stock plate hole, and then back into 
>> the
>> retractor.  Am I thinking of that right? >
>>
>> The metal buckle won't fit thru the steel plate- if it did, there's the 
>> risk
>> of a belt disappearing inside a rocker panel. To get around this problem 
>> from
>> the other end as you suggest, I tried disassembling a retractor once
>>  to access
>> the butt end of the belt, and I don't advise repeating it. Its really 
>> easy to
>> screw up the flat-wound spring in the retractor that actually powers the
>> retraction movement. This ribbon-spring is quite strong, its
>> unreasonably long,
>> all the parts are cheap sheet-sheet staked together, so reassembly is a 
>> mess.
>> Think about 'rebuilding' a tape measure!
>> Finally, I got it to work but it wasn't worth the trouble (I simply 
>> wanted to
>> change a damaged belt). Your choices are:  find a replacement assembly 
>> that
>> fits, convert to racing belts with no retractor & more strength, or go to 
>> a
>> pro-upholstery shop and have them sew in a new stock-type belt.  Good 
>> luck- J
>> Deryke<BR><BR><BR>**************************************<BR> AOL now
>>  offers free
>> email to everyone.  Find out more about what's free from AOL at
>> http://www.aol.com.</HTML>
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