The driver's seatbelt in my 60 hasn't retracted since I bought it. The PO tied a knot in the belt to take up the slack, haha!
I used it that way for a couple of months but wasn't super confident in it and adjusting the length for someone else meant untying and retying. I hoped the fix would be as simple as twisting a few additional windings to the retract spring. Unfortunately, that didn't work. After further disassembly, I found a second spring in the retract assembly which had broken. Since it was close to the end of the spring, I decided to remove the broken piece and bend the end to replicate the original spring, although it would be shorter. I don't think this part has anything to do with locking the belt in an accident but am open to thoughts from others. Here's my fix.
The retract assembly.
In addition to the caution, I came across a number of recommendations to wear safety glasses when disassembling this type of spring.
The first spring you come to in the assembly is the one at the bottom of the photo. Turns out this spring was just fine.
The second spring I came to was the one at the top of the photo -- this was the broken spring.
Broken end removed from the assembly.
Heated the end of the remaining spring in order to bend it.
Here's how my end bend turned out. Next step was to reassemble and reinstall in the cruiser.
The spring end doesn't look much like the original shape, but it was close enough to make the seatbelt retractable again.
I used it that way for a couple of months but wasn't super confident in it and adjusting the length for someone else meant untying and retying. I hoped the fix would be as simple as twisting a few additional windings to the retract spring. Unfortunately, that didn't work. After further disassembly, I found a second spring in the retract assembly which had broken. Since it was close to the end of the spring, I decided to remove the broken piece and bend the end to replicate the original spring, although it would be shorter. I don't think this part has anything to do with locking the belt in an accident but am open to thoughts from others. Here's my fix.
The retract assembly.
In addition to the caution, I came across a number of recommendations to wear safety glasses when disassembling this type of spring.
The first spring you come to in the assembly is the one at the bottom of the photo. Turns out this spring was just fine.
The second spring I came to was the one at the top of the photo -- this was the broken spring.
Broken end removed from the assembly.
Heated the end of the remaining spring in order to bend it.
Here's how my end bend turned out. Next step was to reassemble and reinstall in the cruiser.
The spring end doesn't look much like the original shape, but it was close enough to make the seatbelt retractable again.
