[Trunk Monkey]

My (and everyone else’s) driver’s side seat belt is usually hanging halfway out the door since it won’t retract. I finally got sick of it and with Gumby’s recent find of a somewhat hokey Toyota supplied “fix”, I decided to put an end to my belt’s lazy ways. So, step by step, here’s what to do.

1. Pull up trim on the sill of the DS front and rear doors just enough to expose the lip of the trim piece that covers the belt assembly. Gently peel the belt trim from around the B-pillar and remove it.

2. Slide the plastic boot covering the 14mm main anchor bolt up the belt a little, and remove that bolt, along with the 10mm locating bolt on the top of the seat belt assembly.


3. Hold the assembly vertically and pull the belt off the spool. Once you get to the end you’ll see that the belt is fed through the center of the spool and locked in place with a nylon bar. Feed the belt through the spool enough that you can grab the end with the bar and slide the bar out.


4. NOW PAY ATTENTION. Once you remove the belt from the spool, if you let go the spring winding the spool will explosively unwind itself and you’ll likely be getting a whole new assembly from CDan (list price $93). Once you’ve pulled the belt through the center of the spool, jam a screwdriver or something else through it to keep it from spinning. Pull the belt through the loop by your shoulder and it’s out.


5. Throw the belt in the wash. Be careful with detergents, I’m not sure what they could do to the nylon belt. I used our kid safe stuff, Dreft.


6. While the belt is washing, carefully wind the spool up a little more. I turned mine about 5 turns, until it began to really feel like it had some good tension. Jam screwdriver back through spool. Once the belt is done, hang dry. Mine took about an hour to dry.

7. Now’s the time to break out Toyota’s “fix” for the sticky belt. It’s part no. 73205-48011. Gumby found it in a Lexus TSB (http://forum.ih8mud.com/showthread.php?t=132142). It’s a piece of loop Velcro and two pieces of thick plastic with adhesive on the back. It’s definitely not worth buying since you can accomplish what the kit does very easily, but it was fun to guinea pig it.


Gunk from flossing:


8. Once you’ve flossed the loop and your belt is dry, it’s time to reassemble. Line everything up so the buckle is in the right direction, belt feeds correctly, etc. Feed the belt through the shoulder loop and down. Carefully feed it into the spool. I had to use a pair of fishing hemostats to grab it and get it through. Slide the nylon bar back in and lock the belt in place. Once you’ve done this, you’re no longer in danger of having the spool unwind.

9. Let the spool wind the belt up, bolt everything back into place, and replace the trim.

10. Now, back into Toyota’s “fix”, it’s time for the fluorocarbon tape. This feeds through the shoulder loop and adheres around it, giving the belt a smooth surface to slide through. This, along with winding the spool, is probably the thing that makes the most difference. If you look closely at the shoulder loop, it’s got a wrinkle finish in the plastic. Look at the nylon of the belt and it’s textured too. So, those together create plenty of friction to slow the belt down. Giving the belt something smooth to slide over solves that problem. I think you would use heavy packing tape and get the same effect as what’s in the Toyota kit.


11. Well – you’re done. Yank the belt out a few times and watch with glee as it pulls itself all the way back in with ease.

This is a one banana job and took me a total of 2 hours, including a wash cycle.

[Vitesse_6]

Very nice write up Cory, I will have to give it a shot, Funny thing, My passenger side is worse than the driver.

[Romer]

Exellent write-up Cory. Added to the FAQ

[e9999]

shoot, now I have to do mine....!






nah, good to know! Great write up and pics!

[Gumby]

Very nice.

By the time my truck falls apart I should have all the little things that have been bugging me for 6 years all fixed.

[gbell210]

I've tried to repair my passenger side belt by winding it tighter. At least in my 94, there is a mechanism that prevents it from winding up past a certain point. If you try to over wind it, a notch on the spool triggers a lever to drops down in place to lock the gear from tighting any further. Unfortunately, it still is not tight enough to wind it all the way back in. So maybe the cleaning of the upper loop will help some. Unless anyone can give me any hints to over come the anti-tighting mechanism? (I'll try to get some picks to show this)

Did you also throw the bolts and brackets into the washer too?

[Grench]

Very nice writeup!

FAQ link please. I want to be able to find this one easily when it is warm enough out to do it. :-)

[Trunk Monkey]

Originally Posted by gbell210

I've tried to repair my passenger side belt by winding it tighter. At least in my 94, there is a mechanism that prevents it from winding up past a certain point. If you try to over wind it, a notch on the spool triggers a lever to drops down in place to lock the gear from tighting any further. Unfortunately, it still is not tight enough to wind it all the way back in. So maybe the cleaning of the upper loop will help some. Unless anyone can give me any hints to over come the anti-tighting mechanism? (I'll try to get some picks to show this)

Did you also throw the bolts and brackets into the washer too?

That's on mine too, it's the mechanism that locks the belt in place in a wreck. You could tighten it until the spring is totally compressed if you wanted. Once you remove the belt from the assembly all that's on it is the buckle and the zinc plated end, those got washed too. I guess you could remove the buckle, I didn't even think to try.

[e9999]

yup, you want to make sure that the auto lock is still working fine after all this...

[Slomo]

Excellent write up, great to have all of the difinitive facts and methods in one place to solve this annoyance that we all share. Thanks.

[gbell210]

OK... when I said I thought the seatbelt mechanism was different on my 94, it was because I've only looked at the US passenger side. ( I thought the Drivers and Passenger sides where the same... THEY ARE NOT) Below is a picture showing the passenger seatbelt mechanism. From messing with it, I don't think it can be easily tightened like the drivers side. The reason for this I believe is because I found a label attached saying "When fastening child restraint system Fully extend belt to put it in the lock mode" In the photo you'll notice a blue lever, that when the belt is unwrapped (or tried to tighten more) triggers towards the center of the mechanism. This then moves a gear on a spring (circled in red) to the green gear which locks the seat belt from being pulled out any further. I've actually removed both the plastic housing attached to the pass. side. I was able to then wind up the spring more, without turning the child restraint system mechanism. Unfortunately, when I put it all back together, it unwound and is back to the usual hanging out the door if not manually fed.

Has anyone taken a different approach and had any luck with the US passenger side seatbelt?

EDIT: After taking the passenger side off again, and just cleaning it.. It retracts much better. I put both of mine in the wash machine, with some liquid Purex with Bleach Alternative (normal size load amount with large load setting on the washer). Since I couldn't get the belt out of the shoulder pivot, I left everything except the bolts/washers/spacers and put them all in the wash. To dry I placed them infront of a space heater.

So if you are going to fix your belt.. the best bet I think is to make sure you wash the belt. I also tightened the driver spring, but could only do at most 5 turns before it was fully wound. The passenger side I had messed with before and could not tighten it anymore. Now the pass. side moves much quicker... leading me to the idea of just a thorough cleaning is due for the slow retracting belts

[Truckasaurus]

See my old post on the same subject. I did the washing without removing from the vehicle. Same principles apply. Wash the muck off the belts. Dry. I ironed at a low setting, to make the belt/D-Ring interaction a happier one. As the TSB Kit showed, floss the D-Ring, as well as the belt/tongue interface. I used Windex wipes on both fronts...lots of gunk in there.

Final note: Be very careful re-using the washers and spacers in the proper order and orientation as when they were orignally installed.

Good luck, and happy latching/unlatching/re-winding!

[concretejungle]

are these pics available again?

Thanks.

[badmuthatrucka]

x2 on the pics.

Also, has anyone done anything for the rear seat belts?

[hzavarce]

Great info, but I need to see the pics, pleaseee. I am not sure how to get the nylon bar to slide out. I feel like I'm going to break it.

Thanks !

[Tools R Us]

This one has some pix.

Minute Mod- Fixing Seatbelt Retractors

[Lka1988]

I just bought a new seatbelt.

[hzavarce]

Thanks for the pictures!. I totally had the wrong idea about the nylon bar.

Anyhow, I went to work on the Passenger Side and I was able to come up with a method to successfully wind the spool a few more turns in the Passenger Side:

1) Remove the belt and start by putting the assembly in a vise or something that will hold it in place.
2) The spring cover actually holds one end of the spring. Therefore the spring can be tensioned by removing the cover and rotating it. See Pic #2
3) You need to unwind the spool until the lock mechanism is almost activated. The purpose of this step is to ensure that you are not going to over wind and then lose the seatbelt locking feature. Lock the spool in place with a screwdriver. See Pic #3
4) Then you need to remove the plastic rivets. Carefully push the plastic rivet with a small tool, and make sure you catch it when it pops out at the other side. Now you are ready to pull out the cover (note that there are two small lips on each end that need to be lifted). See Pic #4
5) VERY CAREFULLY, lift the cover just enough so that it can be rotated. Again, very careful!. I rotated mine until I reach the max rotation possible. See Pic #5
6) Then reassemble.

OBSERVATIONS: I actually did over-wind mine, and the lock mechanism does not work. I could have taken it apart and unwind one turn to fix the problem, but I really don’t need the lock mechanism and now days nobody really puts a child seat in the front anymore. The spring did get more tension, and I can see a significant improvement. Just about the same as in the Driver Side.

Enjoy !

[hzavarce]

Picture 5