Seat belts making me crazy.

[OffRoad Rage]

Finally got my Pig running and working on getting it road worthy. Now I'm trying to make it safe. So I bought some seat belts for a 1979 Pig and proceeded to install them in my '78 (should work right?). The inertial switch was working fine holding it in my hand prior to installation. Strap pulled out fine when going slow and locked up with a fast pull. I tried to simulate the mounting angle and still worked fine. Bolted them up and they didn't work. Unbolted them and they work fine. Bolted them back up and no workie. I tried to see if it was an angular issue, rotational issue, etc., etc.. What I determined is that when the mounting bolt contacts the threads in the b-pillar it decides to not work. I tested this theory by grounding the bracket on the metal floor and sure enough they didn't work. These are not electric seat belts and there is only a small magnet that is used in the inertial switch so grounding it should not have an effect right?

Has anyone run into this before and what did you do to resolve it? I'm really excited to get my truck on the road and what I thought was an easy install has now become a hurdle.

Thanks,
Norm

 

[inkpot]

Finally got my Pig running and working on getting it road worthy. Now I'm trying to make it safe. So I bought some seat belts for a 1979 Pig and proceeded to install them in my '78 (should work right?). The inertial switch was working fine holding it in my hand prior to installation. Strap pulled out fine when going slow and locked up with a fast pull. I tried to simulate the mounting angle and still worked fine. Bolted them up and they didn't work. Unbolted them and they work fine. Bolted them back up and no workie. I tried to see if it was an angular issue, rotational issue, etc., etc.. What I determined is that when the mounting bolt contacts the threads in the b-pillar it decides to not work. I tested this theory by grounding the bracket on the metal floor and sure enough they didn't work. These are not electric seat belts and there is only a small magnet that is used in the inertial switch so grounding it should not have an effect right?

Has anyone run into this before and what did you do to resolve it? I'm really excited to get my truck on the road and what I thought was an easy install has now become a hurdle.

Thanks,
Norm

Howdy! See, I found ya. Anyway, I think the whole mechanism is supposed to be spaced out from the B pillar with a large flat (fender) washer, other wise, it hangs up. I went thru mine many years ago. John

 

[Luke111]

Seat Belts

Norm, IronPig installed three point seat belts on my pig they work as long as you pull slow, I was in Calif last month and stopped by TLC and they install a similar belt on the ICON that does not have this issue, you might check with them.

Lou

 

[Eric Ellis]

Norm, IronPig installed three point seat belts on my pig they work as long as you pull slow, I was in Calif last month and stopped by TLC and they install a similar belt on the ICON that does not have this issue, you might check with them.

Lou

Well, I was waiting for that answer myself. I get S for stupid since I pulled a number of seat belt bolts [ and you guessed it... spacers ] from some old Toy sedans a few years ago. Just never occured to me.

 

[n2666s]

x2 on the spacers...put retractables from a 776 onto my 74...needed the spacers to work!



Lou

 

[OffRoad Rage]

Thanks for the replies guys. I tried some 3/16" nylon spacers and even used some electrical tape on the bolt shank to see if that helped but it didn't. It's possible that there should be some paper clip looking spring to provide the right tension on the rachet catch plate. I saw this on the '78 style that I removed but there isn't one on either of the two '79's.

Safety seemed to be evolving at a rapid pace during this time because it doesn't look like any two years are the same. I'm working on acquiring some '77 seat belts to see what those look like.