Belt retractor not retract anymore

[Schmiddy]

So I cleaned the belts of my 65, wich came out pretty nice. My problem is now, the retractors are not working anymore... To clean the belts of the retractor segment, I released the springs until no more tension.

After cleaning I wanted to put the spring back in place, but now they turns up endlessly and no tension can be built up. ?

Does anybody knows what to do to get the needed tension (retraction power) back? 

 

 

[KongaMan]

Sounds like the springs came off the catch pin so they're just spinning.  Did you pop the plastic covers off to have a look?
 

And how come there's one black cover and one white one?  Is that normal (left v. right) or is this a set you cobbled together?

 

Nice belts, BTW.  What did you have do do to the the belts out of the buckles?  And where are the male ends?

[Schmiddy]

Bingo, that was the right hint, thanks Kman! First I didn't had the courage to open the cover, 'cos I expected that possibly some springs could jump out - it's written on it: "DON'T REMOVE" ?

 

As I opened the cover, I could see that the one spring was jumped out just as you said and the other spring was broken. Fortunatly there was enough material to fix it.

 

I don't know why there are two differant cover colour... It came this way with the car. In any case I can't see a differences between the two covers.

 

To become it out of the buckles, I had to cut a litte bit from the double stiched end of the belt. After re-threading the belt, I will have to re-stich the end again. Same for the end of the retractor belt (with the male end I had to cut away to be able to change the broken main retractor cover).

 

Yes, the belt came out very clean! I can hardly say it, but I washed them in the washing machine ???

[KongaMan]

6 hours ago, Schmiddy said:

Bingo, that was the right hint, thanks Kman! First I didn't had the courage to open the cover, 'cos I expected that possibly some springs could jump out - it's written on it: "DON'T REMOVE"

 

That's a challenge, not a warning.

 

6 hours ago, Schmiddy said:

To become it out of the buckles, I had to cut a litte bit from the double stiched end of the belt. After re-threading the belt, I will have to re-stich the end again. Same for the end of the retractor belt (with the male end I had to cut away to be able to change the broken main retractor cover).

 

I believe that it's recommended to use special extra-strong seat belt thread rather than regular thread.  Can you duplicate the original stitch pattern, or are you just going to wing it?

 

You can disassemble the buckle, then rethread the webbing if you'd rather do your sewing without a buckle hanging off of it.

[Schmiddy]

16 hours ago, KongaMan said:

That's a challenge, not a warning.

Yes, that's right! 

 

16 hours ago, KongaMan said:

I believe that it's recommended to use special extra-strong seat belt thread rather than regular thread.  Can you duplicate the original stitch pattern, or are you just going to wing it?

 

I will duplicated the original stich pattern. With a detailed pic of the original pattern, my wife will be able to stich it on her professional sewing machine with ultra strong thread in the same color as the original.

 

16 hours ago, KongaMan said:

You can disassemble the buckle, then rethread the webbing if you'd rather do your sewing without a buckle hanging off of it.

 

Oh, didn't had a clue on how to do that... how can I disassemble the buckle? It seems to me that the item is quite compactly processed...

Looking forward to your answer on how to proceed for disassembling that piece 

[KongaMan]

5 hours ago, Schmiddy said:

... how can I disassemble the buckle? It seems to me that the item is quite compactly processed...

Looking forward to your answer on how to proceed for disassembling that piece 

 

For the Hamill buckle, the rear (plain) section of the cover slides out.  There's a lip on the front of that piece that catches on a section of the latch spring that is bent vertically.  You need to pry the cover up and back to clear that piece.  Once it's released, the rear section of the buckle slides out the back.  Pry the spring up until the notches in the spring are aligned with the tangs on the buckle frame, then slide the spring and latch out. Twist the buckle "handle" and it will come right out.

 

It's actually kinda scary: the two little tabs on that spring are all that keeps the buckle together in a crash.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited November 10, 2016 by KongaMan (see edit history)

[Schmiddy]

Wow, very cool! Thank you so much, I'll try that this week-end ???