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How to unlock rear seatbelt reel?

12K views 6 replies 4 participants last post by  Superaero 
#1 ·
I got a spare seatbelt assembly for the rear seat from the wreckers. The belt reeled in and is now locked up.

How can I unlock it? Is there some sort of a trick to it? There is a little bit of slack there.
 
#2 ·
A used seatbelt is are never a good idea unless you are absolutely sure that it was not loaded in any accident. A seatbelt loaded in an accident is garbage. The reason for this is that seatbelts are engineered devices and cannot be function tested. Once they have restrained a load they cannot be relied upon to do so again.

If you are determined to risk the life of anyone relying on your used seatbelt then you will need to just jiggle the inertia reel until the ratchet unlocks. Be aware that this is a pendulum type ratchet that locks the seatbelt if any G force is applied that varies from vertical. You may notice that the seatbelts already in your car lock in corners, under braking, and also under acceleration. They only release when the vehicle is not under any significant g force. This means your "new" one will not release unless you hold the reel in the same orientation as it will be when correctly installed in the car as if the car were parked on level ground.

If it won't release at all then I was right all along and you should throw it away.

PS: The only way to test a seatbelt for full effectiveness is to drive into something hard at around 50 mph, while you are wearing the seatbelt of course (the movie " Sideways" demonstrates this at much lower speed but it does use a SAAB 900 which is comparable to the 9000). Then you would need to replace the tested seatbelt anyway, unless it didn't work in which case you wouldn't need to be making any decisions about seatbelts. So, ask yourself, would you ride in a car using a seatbelt that some amateur DYI "mechanic" had decided was "safe enough" to use? At what point would you ask the driver to drive more slowly, just in case the seatbelt he bought was not fully functional?
 
#3 ·
I assume that it reeled in and is in a locked state now and you want to unlock it. If it doesnt unreel by slowly pulling out on it you will have to open it. It should have some screws on the side and slowly lift the side cover off. There will be a locking pin that you can lift and unreel the belt out.
just dont disassemble the whole unit then try and assemble it back together for your safety" know what i mean?" might be better getting another in that case.
You dont have to crash your car into something hard to test your seat belt, just pull/ tag on it really fast and it should lock up. the premise of this is that it responds to quick pull as that condition would be in an accident
 
#5 ·
You dont have to crash your car into something hard to test your seat belt, just pull/ tag on it really fast and it should lock up. the premise of this is that it responds to quick pull as that condition would be in an accident[/QUOTE]

This is completely wrong and dangerous advice. A seatbelt that has been loaded in an accident suffers internal stress that cannot be assessed. Experts can tell if it has been loaded in an accident but can never be sure by how much and whether it will withstand another loading.

Ordinary people cannot even tell if a seatbelt has been loaded.

It surprises people to learn that a seatbelt must stretch in a predetermined way (and it stretches a lot in high speed decelerations) to protect you. A moments thought will allow you to see why. If the seatbelt really restrained you in the seat without stretching then the deceleration forces in the accident would be the same as if you hit the inside of the car unrestrained by the seatbelt. The seatbelt would cut you in half. The forces involved are enormous.

The locking feature MUST operate to protect you but just because the locking feature works does not mean anything about whether the seatbelt is strong enough to protect you.
 
#6 · (Edited)
I dont know of anyone that pulls off the seatbelt and ships it off to an expert to asses the " internal stress" of the seat belt prior to buying a used vehicle havent seen that yet, would be ideal though.

Most seat belts are equipped with locking mechanisms (or inertia reels) that tighten the belt when pulled fast (e.g. by the quick force of a passenger's body during a crash) but do not tighten when pulled slowly. This is implemented with a centrifugal clutch, which engages as the reel spins quickly. .... source wiki- seatbelts.

This is a common and advisable thing to do when buying used and testing the seatbelt function. You would at least know that the locking mechanism works and the rest - well lets all drive alittle safer and hope it doesnt come to that.
i would advise anyone to do this test and go one step further and pull against the latch too because some tests that have revealed the latch to unlock under pressure in some vehicles
 
#7 ·
This is why nobody should be installing used seatbelts into any car. Insurers sometimes baulk at paying for new seatbelts when repairing collision damage, cynical outfits that they are as they know this increases the risk of higher payouts for injuries but don't care. Otherwise, if you buy a car with repaired collision damage it is worth your while to check that the seatbelts loaded in the accident were replaced.

Perhaps I am not making the point strongly enough. If you wear a seatbelt you must know that it is in good servicable condition. The ONLY way to know this is to be sure it has not been loaded in a collision. The consequences of not being sure may be your death.
 
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