On Fri, 15 Dec 1995, SCHLINING.M.W- wrote:
> There is a small gravity pawl in the seat belt reel that will stay in
> the locked position if the reel isn't oriented properly. If there is
> anyone out there that isn't getting new seat belts, but is have this
> problem, try loosing the bolt holding the reel and rotate it (I
> believe 'up') until the belt will pull out freely. This means that
> the gravity pawl is in its proper "attitude". Tighten the bolt down
> and the seatbelts should work the way they were designed.
I have opened up the seatbelt reels on a 72 BGT to see what was inside.
There is a little pendulum that swings forward under deceleration, to
lock the reel. The whole system can become sticky, so that it is hard to
pull the belt out even if the orientation is correct.
I worry that your procedure is not a good idea for the following reason.
You can probably rotate the housing so that the pendulum does not lock the
belt as you put it on. I am not sure that means that the orientation is
correct, however. It seems possible that you might tilt the housing so as
to put a sticky pendulum in its rearmost position, which could allow you
to extend the belt more easily. However, the pendulum might not then lock
the belt during deceleration.
Your life depends on your seat belts. I would recommend either having a
professional rebuild balky belts, or better yet replace them. After 15
to 35 years of sun, the webbing is probably substantially weakened anyway.
Ray Gibbons Dept. of Molecular Physiology & Biophysics
Univ. of Vermont College of Medicine, Burlington, VT
gibbons@northpole.med.uvm.edu (802) 656-8910
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