74 Dart Seatbelts, how do they work correctly?

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1mopar4life

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This is like the last frontier for me unless I'm missing something but I cannot for the life of me figure out how to get the seatbelt to feed from the car so I can put the things on! I did however pull the covers off where they go down by the seats so I can pull the bar in them to let me pull them out but no passenger will ever figure that out in the event of a traffic stop. Is there a trick to them or should I find different ones to put in it or ?. My old trucks belts work fine and are easy to use yet my Dart belts are impossible. The mechanism inside them looks brand new, no rust just as bronze/gold looking as a new one yet they don't work so good. I think I read somewhere that the belts changed to this death trap in 74. Figures! Anybody have any solutions?
 
'74 was the first year for the "unibelt" combined lap and shoulder belt. The most charitable thing to be said about them is that they're not as godawful as the '72-'73 separate clip-together retractable lap and nonretractable shoulder belts, which in turn were somewhat less godawful than the completely separate '69-'71 lap and shoulder belts. See this post to try and get your '74 belts back in working condition. Keep in mind that they were very finicky even when brand new; if you pulled the belt out too fast or too suddenly, they'd lock and force you to return them all the way to the retractor and start again. Damnuisance.

I used to recommend retrofitting 4-point Wesco belts as I did on my '71, but not any more (the article is correct in its facts and physics, and everything said about 5-point harnesses is equally true of the 4-point variety, except the additional injuries that a 5-point can do to your 'nads).

When I get rid of the separate lap/shoulder straps in my '73, I'm putting in these up-to-date, reputable-brand ECE-approved 3-point seat belts (linked vendor is reliable; I've been buying there for a decade; their eBay store is here). More info on belt selection and mounting is at the maker's website. If I needed mounting hardware, I'd buy it again from Wesco (and their page has good illustrated write-ups on how to install belts in pillarless cars like yours here ), but the Securon belts are a much better-designed product than anything Wesco carries.

There are also bench- and bucket-seat 3-point belt setups available from XV Motorsports, but I am hesitant to recommend or use them until I have more than a one-line say-so from the company that their belts actually meet the relevant safety standards; discussion on that matter is here.
 
Thanks for the well informed answer. I will add that to the list of parts to buy when I start on my interior. My belts work good provided you manually push the bar inside the retractor to let it come out. If I fight with them enough I can do it with out having to push the bar to let off the belts but that doesnt always work.
 
Taking out the shoulder belt (or leaving it off) is fine if you wanna eat the steering column in a front-ender.

I don't.
 
I had a rear belt retractor problem in my 73. When I removed it I couldn't see anything really wrong with it. I used compressed air to remove a small amount of dust / dirt collected in it and that cured it.
After thinking about it, I realized it did start acting up right ater we drove that car on vacation to the beach. Sandy children LOL
It dont take much debris to cause a problem in those mecanisms.
 
Yeah, those dual ratchet seat belt systems are awful. Short of changing them to something else, clean and lube the mechanisms and pull the belts SLOWLY when you want to latch them.
 
slantsixdan said:
Taking out the shoulder belt (or leaving it off) is fine if you wanna eat the steering column in a front-ender.

I don't.
Click to expand...

A 1967 Dart steering wheel tastes llke blood, I went face first into one at about 40mph, split my lip clean through and knocked out five teeth, wasn't wearing belt at the time, also is a quick way to remove a bench seat, as the seat was completely ripped out of the floor, and when there is a wrinkle in the top the doors don't want to open.
 
same problem here, I HATE the seat belts. Always fight them, and was hoping there was a good cure rather than doing the lube, and know the fact they are finicky so pull them slowly. :(
 
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