Oops.. Removed Seat belt tensioner and belt fully retracted until "spool" wouldn't allow any more

[onemudder]

Oops..

In an effort to thoroughly clean the aftermath of sunroof leaks I removed everything from the B Pillar. The entire belt area looked nasty so I decided to remove all the bolts and then took it in to soak the belt for a good bath/cleaning except....

in my haste to beat daylight I let all the belt slack retract into the tensioner until the "spool" wouldn't accept any more slack. Now the tensioner won't let me pull any belt out of it. I tried coaxing some if out by playing with the spool and pull on it. I tried it fast and also tried it slow. Neither will let me pull any slack.

I searched the forums and nothing turns up. I am tempted to take it apart but decided to hit the forums here.

I am wondering if I reconnect the yellow sensor wire to it that it will help. Right now, there is no power to it since I am waiting for Costco to come through on a new Interstate 27F battery.

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

[onemudder]

..

 

[Ayune]

@onemudder Try holding the belt housing perfectly vertical before pulling on the belt, as it is installed in the car. There may be a pendulum that is locking the belt. In a sudden stop it swings forward and locks the belt.

I wouldn’t apply power anywhere near the tensioners, and be sure to leave the battery disconnected when you reconnect them. It’s a small explosive charge if I’m not mistaken....

 

[Ayune]

And c’mon folks, it took almost 60 views of this thread before someone said “don’t apply power to the tensioners”?!

This is just as much a red flag as “can I use cinder blocks for jack stands?” which I’m sure would have received multiple responses within a few minutes.

No offense intended, @onemudder, it was a fair question. But yellow connectors are yellow for a reason: they’re dangerous, and we owe it to all DIY’ers to spread key knowlege and stay safe!! If you see/read something, SAY something!

 

[chrisratz]

@onemudder It’s a small explosive charge if I’m not mistaken....

Yikes I had no idea. I have it on my list to tear down the seatbelts, clean and reinstall to get them retracting smoothly again. I'll be sure to stay away from the yellow connectors.

Reminds me last year when I was getting my garage door back on its tracks, and I unscrewed the red bolt. That was also brightly colored for a reason.

 

[Mauser]

Wow had no Idea there was an explosive charge in seatbelts. Thank you for the info. I will be a lot more careful with them in the future.

Had to google to see what it was for.

 

[onemudder]

Thanks guys for the replies. @Ayune I followed your suggestion and IT WORKED! Keeping it vertical allowed me to retract and then extend it out normally. I believe there is a pendulum as you mentioned. Also, thanks for the warning! I'll be sure to leave the battery disconnected when I reconnect them. As I mentioned before there is no power connected now. Like @chrisratz I had no idea what the yellow wires denoted.

I'll post some pics soon, but it is interesting the warning labels, listed in several languages, but since the warning label stick wrapped around the tensioner the english warning was partially obscured. The Japanese part was fully readable, and the Arabic was 100% obscured only readable once you removed the tensioner from the pillar. Very interesting and maybe by design! Ayune, you were right -- The label says there is an "explosive initiator".

Now I have the slack clipped tightly to avoid another mishap of the full retraction. The belt is now sitting in a final bath of Oxy-Clean. It was disgusting. I used very hot water for countless washes each time thinking I got it all. Incredible how much filth there was on this "new to me" seatbelt.

 

[mdcoa]

Thread resurrection, since this is the closest thread I could find to my issue, and I'll be doggone if I'm going to start a new thread before I really have to.

Just installed a Raingler cargo net (love it), and decided to try another mounting method for the 2nd mounting point down (near the 2nd row seat/C-pillar upper seat belt mount). I got the bolt out and then dropped the flipping seat belt mount, causing the belt to feed into the retractor rapidly.

Which locked the belt. It's as if the ALR is activated (see this post). I then undid the bottom seatbelt mount to give me more slack to play with, which the retractor promptly ate and refuses to spit out.

Truck is parked in driveway at a very slight incline--not enough to have caused any of my seatbelts to act funny previously.

Do I just need to pull the interior trim (again) and dismount the retractor and see if there's an angle at which I can hold it that will unlock it? Should I just turn the truck around in the driveway? Should I abandon hope and buy a new seatbelt retractor assy?

 

[jerryb]

if you have the assembly in your hands it's pretty easy too get all the belt out. Even when you let it fully load up all the way with extra belt it will still act the same way as far as releasing the lock and letting you pull all the belt out. The drum will only take what it can, the amount of belt available is more than the drum should be able to accept.
There isn't a reason you shouldn't be able to get all the belt out with it mounted vertical in the truck either, with an as built correctly functioning assembly.

 

[bigredmachine]

Do I just need to pull the interior trim (again) and dismount the retractor and see if there's an angle at which I can hold it that will unlock it? Should I just turn the truck around in the driveway? Should I abandon hope and buy a new seatbelt retractor assy?

just pull the b-pillar cover to get access, it dosnt really take a lot to lock up the seatbelt. great when yuor in an accident, terrible when your working on the seatbelt and it constantly locks up on ya.

 

[mdcoa]

Thanks! Will do--I'll pull the bottom cover far enough out to let me feed a big more belt into the retractor (currently the sewn stop on the belt is right up against the opening in the quarter panel).

But every time I let slack go in, I hear the same clicking I hear when I pull the belt all the way out and then let it retract for holding a child seat tight. . . wondering if it'll keep doing that as I free up more slack. It ate a solid few inches last night as I kept gently feeding slack in hoping it'd release . . . ha ha!

And just my luck this is the only rear seatbelt we even need . . . we have three child seats, and this is the only seat with out latch mounts!

Fortunately nobody's going anywhere much these days, and our venerable volvo currently has the seats in it.

 

[bigredmachine]

But every time I let slack go in, I hear the same clicking I hear when I pull the belt all the way out and then let it retract for holding a child seat tight. . . wondering if it'll keep doing that as I free up more slack. It ate a solid few inches last night as I kept gently feeding slack in hoping it'd release . . . ha ha!

then it sounds like youll just have to feed the belt in all the way then pull it out, you engaged the ratchet mechanism to lock the seatbelt from pulling out.

 

[mdcoa]

then it sounds like youll just have to feed the belt in all the way then pull it out, you engaged the ratchet mechanism to lock the seatbelt from pulling out.

Well, pulled the front of the quarter trim out enough to feed even more belt into the reel. It’s now all the way in (wont even take more belt), but still won’t release.
Thinking next step is to pull the quarter trim completely out, pull the reel, and see if I can get it to release while dismounted...

 

[bigredmachine]

unbolt the seat belt assy from the body so you can hold it vertically then pull out the belt

 

[mdcoa]

Got it! Pulled the quarter trim, dismounted the reel, stood outside the car very gently fiddling with it, feeding more and more into the reel until the stinking thing finally decided to let me pull some out. I secured it with a chip clip to prevent a reoccurrence, and put everything back together—thanks for the input!