legacycentral bbs

Well, I got tired, and afraid, of not having a shoulder belt. Having the car at college, I don't really drive all that much, but I've been going all over the place lately and have started road rallying my car, so I decided I should probably do something. For all I know I'm going to get in an accident next week.

The belt was stuck in the forward position, and would sometimes move like 1/2 and inch when the door was opened and closed. Some of the covering got stripped off and allowed the cable to come out of the track. This caused it to get mangled even more when it tried to move.

I tried cranking the belt back with an allen wrench, but I cracked the little hole a long time ago doing the same thing. I even pounded a socket on it, and was able to move it back and forth a little bit, but it was still stuck over a range of movement of a few inches.

Last week I e-mailed a few junkyards and a dealership in Canada asking about getting a manual seatbelt. The dealership gave me some line about changing them being unsafe, and I got no responses from the junkyards, which all listed having BC/BFs in the yard.

I went and bought some vice grips today, took the panel that covers the motor off, and cranked on the motor. Still wouldn't move. I took the anchor at the top off the b-pillar, undid the little pins, and slid the little plastic thing off the bottom that holds the tube to the anchor assembly. There was the problem: a kink in the cable wounldn't let it go into the tube that runs down the b-pillar. I managed to shove it down there by hand, wound the belt back to the locked position, put everything back together, and unplugged the motor.

Now I have a shoulder belt. I feel so much safer now.

Good work ol chap. Hope all stays put, and thanks for the writeup.

Makes me wonder though, if there was enough forward motion, if it would come undone. If you can find a good bc/bf in the lower BC area, I can try and pick up the parts for the manual belt ( in that I work 100 ft from the Canadian border)

I've been trying to fix mine lately, too. That's a very helpful mini-writeup, Jamal, thank you.
I've already looked into replacing them, but I like the autobelts.. I think they're fun. I'm definitly trying your little trick here when I get home.

What exactly is road rallying? A-B "race" like the Cannonball Run?

well, I posted about it in the motorsports forum, but I don't think anyone goes there.

You have a map with standoffs to go to, and a sheet of directions that will give you hints as to where they are and how you have to go through them. Checkpoints will have timing boxes and a hose you have to drive over. Each car leaves the start a minute apart, so theoretically, if everyone follows the correct route and is on time, they will all cross each checkpoint a minute apart in the correct order. As car 21, I started, and should have crossed each checkpoint exactly 21 minutes after car 1. If I cross the hose on the exact 100th of a minute I'm supposed to, I get a zero for that leg, which means no timing error, and is the highest score. Also you're suppose to be driving the speed limit. If you go the right way and drive the limit, theoretically you'll be on time. It's best to be a little early and creep, though.


I don't see why it would come undone. I can't move it at all by pulling on it, and it is secured in the same was as it would be if the motor was working. After I got it to go past the jam, it wound up somewhat easily. I just cranked it until it wouldn't move anymore, and the buckle was seated fully over the bolt that attaches to the b-pillar.

last thursday i took the whole assemlby out to fix.
First take off the B piller lower trim piece
Secondly take off the upper front portion of trim.
Pull away the Sunroof seal strip on the headliner if you have a sunroof-hidden screws****

Take off the sunvisor-two screws and one electrical connector,again to pull down the headliner in later steps

proceed to take screws - bolts out as follows
1 bolt-with screw head also on front A piller to take out
one BIG bolt on middle portion B pillar to take out
3 bolts lower winding unit
2 bolts for wiring clips
and 2 bolts in the roof line that you have to pull down a little on the headliner to even see and to get to.
also the A pillar has one electrical connector to disconnect, and the winder mechanism has like 5 wires to disconnect.

That is it. Took my assemble out. There are two C clips on the curved portion, take them off, and the assembly all slides apart.
I cut away the stripped plastic covering of the cable where it was shot, applied a thin 1 layer of electrical tape, made sure the tape would slide through the sleeving okay (put too much tape on first time it wouldn't go thru), and assembled it back together. Works great now, better than haveing a big loop of cable hitting me in the side of the head, and the seatbelt stuck in halfway back position, which was unsafe. hope it hold up for a while. better than buying a used one i think.

b