Seat belt retractor

I can understand the frustration you are going through sometimes with 50 year old devices you need to lubricate them and work them or take them apart and clean and lubricate them some devices are just old and worn out and might need replacement items such as seatbelts also might look OK but you don’t know until you need them that they might just be worn out and be dry rotted when I went through my car I just went ahead and ordered new assemblies since my car is a 68 and the shoulder harnesses are incorrectly located anyway with a safety items such as seatbelts you might be best off with new ones