HDJ81 Front Seat Belt Upgrade (1 Viewer)

[Crab Sack]

i noticed that my front seat belts did not lock up when quickly pulled and it made me uneasy having myself and my family in the front seats of the cruiser in the event of an accident. I'm not sure if the it is a difference in the Japanese spec or if my retractors just weren't working properly. My seat belt webbing was worn and starting to fray so I opted to install a new set of front seat belts. I compared the HDJ81 seat belts to a 91 FJ80 and they did not match due to the seat belt height adjuster on the 81. That is a good thing because one of the 2 seat belts for that year are discontinued. I then compared the 81's to a 96 FZJ80 seat belt and what do you know, we have a match. So I ordered them up and did a quick install. I could have used that money for some much needed sliders but safety comes first.

This was a 1 Banana job as they say but I thought I would do a quick write up on how to replace the front seat belts.
1. Remove the front and rear door sill plates.
2. Remove the lower b pillar trim.
3. Remove 10mm bolt on top of the retractor and 14 mm bolt on the bottom of the retractor.
4. The trim on the shoulder bracket can be tricky if you don't know how to unclip so I drew up a little diagram with pics. Pinch the adjusting buttons together and insert a trim tool to unclip the bottom of the cover. Then pivot the bottom cover outward. See pics.
Reinstall in reverse order.

 

[Malleus]

Good info! I neglected to to use the trim tools and broke that tab