Jammed driver seatbelt

Hammer24

Hammer24

TJ Enthusiast
Joined
Jan 29, 2019
Messages
428
Location
Melbourne, Australia
Hopped in the Jeep today and the drivers side (RHD) seatbelt is stuck, wouldn't budge at all. It's like when you pull on a seatbelt too quick and it jams up, except it won't work at all even when pulling slowly. Anyone had a similar problem and know a fix? Cheers
 
Minor update, unbolted the top part of the seatbelt to see if it would retract or if it's fully jammed. It retracted but now it's just further down so not exactly a genius move from me.
 
Had a small piece of glass find its way into a rear seat mechanism.
Did the same thing, found it with a bright light and a small screwdriver, crushed it all fixed.
 
Hhmmmmmm, may require a junkyard purchase.
Of course, you'll take it apart but let us know if you still can't get it working.
 
Yeah could be a junkyard visit, kinda sucks tho as Jeeps aren't particularly common here so could be hard to find the part. I'll take it apart when I have the chance and give an update of how that goes.
 
The latching mechanism is easy to figure out and it's usually just gummed up with grime/dirt which can be flushed out with WD40 to restore it back to normal operation.

As you can see here, there's just a steel ball in a cup that locks it. When forces cause the steel ball to roll out of the center of its orange cup it moves the yellow latch so it locks the mechanism above it.

Seatbelt-locking-mechanismE.jpg
 
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Jerry Bransford said:
The latching mechanism is easy to figure out and it's usually just gummed up with grime/dirt which can be flushed out with WD40 to restore it back to normal operation.

As you can see here, there's just a steel ball in a cup that locks it. When forces cause the steel ball to roll out of the center of its orange cup it moves the yellow latch so it locks the mechanism above it.

View attachment 89574
Click to expand...
Thanks for the explanation, should help finding what im looking for.
 
E z fix, stretch seat belt out and wash with laundry detergent, then silicone spray mechanism. I didn't want lube oil on my shirt. This is from my Honda mechanic and works great
 
I've taken the mechanism apart for now, havent had a chance to take some photos but the spring below the green part (yellow in your picture jerry) seems to be bent? not sure if this is causing the issue, the ball in the cup seems to be working fine tho so must be something else. Will post pictures to help later but in the meantine does anyone have a complete sort of diagram of the parts so I can see whats out of place? Cheers
 
Hammer24 said:
I've taken the mechanism apart for now, havent had a chance to take some photos but the spring below the green part (yellow in your picture jerry) seems to be bent? not sure if this is causing the issue, the ball in the cup seems to be working fine tho so must be something else. Will post pictures to help later but in the meantine does anyone have a complete sort of diagram of the parts so I can see whats out of place? Cheers
Click to expand...
That pic is the only/best thing I've ever seen that shows that mechanism in working condition.
 
Might just have to bite the bullet and buy a new one, thought i'd fixed it but it's rattling now and not working smoothly (still an improvement). Anyway its beyond me, thanks for the help though.
 
To me the entire upper and lower seatbelts are maintenance items that should probably be replaced after 10 years or 15 years anyway. I’m planning on doing it real soon. Just when I look at the parts diagrams to do it I get different part numbers than those that online sellers say fits my 04 X.
My belts are slow to retract, somewhat faded and no longer as pliable as they should be. Really don’t want them to snap if I ever need to rely on them.
 
Anyone have any suggestions for a replacement one? Had a look at the ones on quadratec and none seem to be exact reproductions so not sure which ones to go with.
 
Hello everyone,
Just a guest here who was looking into seatbelt fixes when i stumbled across this forum.
I have an '05 TJR, just bought a poison spider rollcage, to replace the OEM cage. When removing the seatbelts i let them over-retract, which caused them to lock the inertia lever in place refusing to extend the seatbelt. My passenger front, and both passenger rear seatbelts are similar to what is shown above but my driver's seatbelt was different. It did not have an easy to remove cover, instead it had 2 covers, both riveted on.
With nothing to lose, i brought the belt to work, ground off the Rivets on both covers (FYI, the dark grey cover with 3 rivets is the return spring and doesn't need to be removed, if you remove it I'll explain how i fixed it, later). Using a pocket screw driver i popped the inertia lever out of its lock and un-spooled my belt. Without a rivet of similar size on hand, i drilled the rivet holes out to 5/32, to fit an m4 bolt (3, m4x0.70x12mm for the spring cover, and 2, m4x0.70x16mm for the white cover).
To fix the spring concern, with the spring off, I retracted as much belt into the spool as possible, until it started contacting the framework, installed the spring, opened the inertia switch, and un-spooled the belt and tested the retraction. It appears to be working at this time.
I installed the m4's, with the bolt heads on the inside of the reel and the nuts on the outside (no washers, fyi). I also had to mildly alter the white cover to fit the nuts, but made sure not to put a hole in the cover. The bolt heads sit pretty flush with the reel mechanism. Also, make sure that you hold the seatbelt, pulled out, to keep spring tension and keep the interia switch happy.
I haven't installed the belt, yet, but indications show that it should be fine.
It's a little bit of work for saving a few bucks but maybe this will help someone, at some point.
-Matthew Kidder
 
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Hello everyone,
Just a guest here who was looking into seatbelt fixes when i stumbled across this forum.
I have an '05 TJR, just bought a poison spider rollcage, to replace the OEM cage. When removing the seatbelts i let them over-retract, which caused them to lock the inertia lever in place refusing to extend the seatbelt. My passenger front, and both passenger rear seatbelts are similar to what is shown above but my driver's seatbelt was different. It did not have an easy to remove cover, instead it had 2 covers, both riveted on.
With nothing to lose, i brought the belt to work, ground off the Rivets on both covers (FYI, the dark grey cover with 3 rivets is the return spring and doesn't need to be removed, if you remove it I'll explain how i fixed it, later). Using a pocket screw driver i popped the inertia lever out of its lock and un-spooled my belt. Without a rivet of similar size on hand, i drilled the rivet holes out to 5/32, to fit an m4 bolt (3, m4x0.70x12mm for the spring cover, and 2, m4x0.70x16mm for the white cover).
To fix the spring concern, with the spring off, I retracted as much belt into the spool as possible, until it started contacting the framework, installed the spring, opened the inertia switch, and un-spooled the belt and tested the retraction. It appears to be working at this time.
I installed the m4's, with the bolt heads on the inside of the reel and the nuts on the outside (no washers, fyi). I also had to mildly alter the white cover to fit the nuts, but made sure not to put a hole in the cover. The bolt heads sit pretty flush with the reel mechanism. Also, make sure that you hold the seatbelt, pulled out, to keep spring tension and keep the interia switch happy.
I haven't installed the belt, yet, but indications show that it should be fine.
It's a little bit of work for saving a few bucks but maybe this will help someone, at some point.
-Matthew Kidder
 
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