Seat belts - grabbing and not extending (sorta long)

I would suggest you need to relax and pull really gently and evenly on the suckers or turn around and park the other way in the driveway.

Mine are grabby and I have a couple friends who just 'can't' get them to come out. I always have to reach over and pull them out for them. There are only two like that and both are very impatient people. LOL.

One thing that is really bad about the CJ belts is they lock up on the slightest downslope. There is no way to move them. This is a serious pain off road, especially if you have to stop and get out. If you aren't level when stopped, you are 'not' getting that belt back on. Hence my suggestion of parking the other way in the driveway.

This has been discussed here and various fixes such as putting a bolt through or grabbing them with vise grips to prevent them from retracting while wheeling, but this damages the strength.

I went and bought a set of plastic 'shoulder strap adjusters' for short people. These are clamps that go on the lap belt and hook the shoulder strap to adjust it off short people's necks or to move the shoulder strap over towards the door.

Anyway, I clamped this onto the shoulder belt instead so I can slide it up to the top holder at the sport bar to prevent the belt from retracting on me. It will vibrate after a bit and slide down, but it stays pretty good. This clamp also is nice to hold the passenger straps together along the sport bar when running doors off and no passenger.

Mike

86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail >

Hi Mike -

Thanks for the feedback.

The Jeep "sleeps" at night in the shop/garage and the floor is pretty flat so turning it around probably isn't going to be of much help - but I'm willing to give it a try (LOL)

And sometimes a slow steady pull works - and sometimes it doesn't. I've not been able to figure out any sort of correlation to what the mechanism seems to "like" and what "annoys" it.

You're right however that when it decides to lock up on the trail - it's really annoying. Driving even for a short time on the trail without belts fastened is not my favorite thing - even for a realtively short distance to a wide spot where I can pull off and not hold up the people behnd me in the group.

If it's a generic problem to all CJ's (which I sorta doubt) then maybe I just need to figure out how to live with it - try different "pull out" angles e.g. toward the door, toward the seat and so on or whatever

I was hoping there was something unique (or magic perhaps) about mountingf them or some special technique that I just haven't figured out yet.

Again - really appreciate your counsel, and will hope for some additional comment from others in the group

Lynn

Mike Roma> I would suggest you need to relax and pull really gently and evenly on

Lynn,

I bought a set of 3 point aftermarket replacement belts for my YJ, from Cool Cruisers of Texas. I am pretty sure they are the same as 4wd.com sells, and I don't have the problem you describe. I would guess that there is something actually wrong with your vehicle or the way you have mounted the belts, but I can't imagine what. You might consider, especially if you do a lot of wheeling, a set of manually adjustable belts. It has been hard to find the good ones recently though.

Earle

consistently.

How's the Jeeps stance? Does the frame sit level with the ground or is the nose lower? If the nose is lower from say a winch or really soft springs, I would try parking the front tires on a 2x4 or 2x6 to tilt it up flat to see what happens.

Just a thought?

Mike

" snipped-for-privacy@aol.com" wrote:

I had the same problem in the 'big truck'. Turned out to be dirty retractor mechanisms. The fix for me was to use compressed air, directly into the retractor without having to disassemble. Worked pretty well. Give this a try before resorting to explosives.

Hi Mike -

Jeep frame actually sits pretty level. But will try the 2x4 or 2x6 "trick" and see if it helps - but I'm frankly not very optimistic.

I spoke with 4WDH today to get an RMA # for somethng else -and their "tech guy" (?) said he has the same problem with the belts on his CJ.

I'm getting pretty close to adding the belt assemblies to the RMA - they were about $70 each side - and staying with the "original" new belts since they seemed to work as well as the "new" new set.

Mike Roma> How's the Jeeps stance? Does the frame sit level with the ground or is

Agree that it's likely an installation issue - but frankly it's hard to imagine a different way to mount the belt assembly. Only option I see relates to the "angle" of the inertia mechanism relative to the body. Using the "axle" that the belts retracxts onto - I've tried with the "ax;e" parallel to the ground, and "angled back" slightly so there's a more straight shot toward the upper belt mount on the roll bar (sport bar) - all to no avail so far.

Manual belts is an > Lynn,

Why not just try a manual seatbelt like they used back-in-the-day like this?

The dohicky I got to stop mine from retracting is called 'The Seatbelt Adjuster TM' and is made by

I can't get a response from their website, but found a link on their 'real' use for adjusting the shoulder belt.

According to the US Dept. of Transportation, they 'actually' work for kids and small people to position the shoulder belt properly. Who knew....

Anyway I like the things and use them on every drive more then 5 minutes or even less. I am tall, 6' 4" and the belt bites into my collar bone so having this plastic clip stopping the belt from getting too tight is great!

Mike

" snipped-for-privacy@aol.com" wrote: