How do I un-jam my seat belts? Help!

[cruiser]

MOPAR faithful: Have you had this problem? Your seat/shoulder belts jam as they extend when you're buckling up. My 74 Duster does this all the time. They eventually lock up to when the seat belt and shoulder harness are completely stuck and will neither retract nor extend. Anybody know how to fix this? Maybe lubricate something in the retractors? I can't figure it out. Thanks - BOB

 

[Demonic]

There's a pawl that catches the ratchet. The spring gets weak and they lock up. Oil won't help, you have to disassemble and replace the coil spring. That involves finding a spring supplier.

 

[tonysrt]

My 74 Duster has the exact same problem. But not knowing history of car, belts have been replaced because they are black and interior is tan. Maybe I'll look at passenger side and maybe use that spring til I find replacement. Thanks for the spring info.

 

[RedFish]

Passive restraint, The spool lock is supposed to be inertia reaction. So long is spool rotates at a low speed the lock does nothing. In a accident the spool would start to rate very fast with passenger movement. Spool lock activates. I'm sure you have noticed that you have beeter luck pulling the belt out very slowly. Of course the spool does rate faster as the belt lap diameter gets smaller
Anyway... pull the retracter, play with it and see how it works. Plus you will see it is loaded with hair, dust, lint, etc... The belt carries a lot of stuff to them. All I ever needed to do to those in our 73 Valiant and 87 Gran Fury, is thoroughly clean them. Only 1, right rear of the Valiant, still had a little attitude after reinstall.

 

[cudamark]

Yeah, '74 was a horrible year for seat belts. That 2 retractor system was always fighting each other. If I owned it, I'd get a different year setup that only has one retractor.

 

[Demonracer]

Look into Ssnake Oyl, they rebuild seat belt retractors.

 

[Demonic]

My 74 Duster has the exact same problem. But not knowing history of car, belts have been replaced because they are black and interior is tan.

Maybe not. I have seen several cars that did not have color coordinated belts, usually A bodies. They seemed to run out of colors and default to black. Usually with green and blue interiors. Just from observing parts cars in years past, FWIW.

 

[tonysrt]

I would agree about the running out of colors but these are in too good a shape for being 46 years old, even though they don't work that well.