Driver's side seat belt latch failed

In the past week, I noticed that on occasion the driver's side seat belt on my '89 would come unlatched on its own. Now it has gotten to the point that it really does NOT want to latch as the internal spring for the latch button has failed. I have searched the forum to see if anyone had a DIY repair, but it seems that this is more of a replace, not repair type of failure. I have emailed Jim Finn in hopes that he has some of the latches assemblies in good condition. Sill just curious if anyone has ever come up with a process to repair these latches.

David T.

I DIY'd my driver's side latch about a year ago. The little metal spring in there can snap fairly easily with prolonged use as you've figured out. I used a piece of dense foam and electrical tape to fix mine. If you can take apart the buckle (there's lots of guides to that part) then all you have to do is clean out all the fragments of the old spring and tape a small piece of the foam right on where the spring pushed against the latch.

Tom,

After finding a couple of video along with a reply post that the proper way to open up the latch was to insert a small screwdriver all the way thru on one side to PUSH the rear tabs of the top section out sufficient to clear and then the same on the opposite side. While I did wind up having to use a small hammer to hit the end of the screwdriver, the tab popped free and then I repeated on the other side. Nothing broke during the disassembly, so that was reassuring. Sure enough, the small metal spring under the latch was broken. For the moment, I used the "3 layers of foam tape" solution to solve the root problem. I reassembled it and the top popped back into place using fairly strong pressure at the rear. Now the buckle once again latches firmly and while the release button is not as easy to press, with only a bit more pressure, it does release the belt. Thanks for pointing me onto a DIY path. If Jim Finn has any replacement buckles I will likely still purchase them as a fall back.