Both of the front seats (driver and passenger) seatbelts do not retract once unbuckled unless they have a good deal of help. I usually must reach over my left shoulder and pull the belt down toward the floor and the mechanism to get it going. Once I do this, it will retract as it did originally.

I have soaked the belt in soapy water and cleaned it thoroughly. This helped a bit, but not much.

I cleaned the bending point near the top of the cab. This too helped a bit, but not much.

I removed the cover of the mechanism on the floor and cleaned and lubed everything the best I could. This didn't help much.

I have seen places online that will charge around $65 per belt to repair the tensioner and send it back within 24 hours. I thought I would post here and see if anyone else had any thoughts or experiences (good or bad) with using these services or how they fixed the problem themselves.

If the fix was buying new belts and mechanisms, I am open to that too as long as the color is tan or complimentary to the interior of the vehicle.

 

I have this same problem. I guess you tried my idea. I had planned to take apart the mechanism and blow it out and clean it, didn't work huh? Hmm

 

Not really. I had better results by cleaning the belt and top anchor point, but still needs help to retract. I found a place on Ebay that is in TN (near me) that does repairs/service. I asked them the specific question about repairing the tensioner and will see what they say.

Maybe between this post and the Ebay store I will have a good course of action.

 

My passenger seat belt is stuck in the retracted position making it not working.
I plan on taking the plastic interior pieces off and having a look.
This is on a 1997 F-250 HD.
Will report back. Glad you posted.

 

Is one of the problems because the belt is stiff from the dirt build up over the years? If so, I have the same exact problem, I can't tell you how many times I have got the belt caught in the door due to this. I have also tried cleaning the belt but it still does it. It will be interesting to see if the rebuilt or new tensioners take care of the issue...

 

The Ebay store said no go, they don't have spare parts for our trucks.

I am going to contact a couple of other online "repair centers" to see what they can do.

 

What I've seen happen is that sometime if you launch yourself forward fast enough the belt mechanism locks and when this happens the belt gets tighter and tighter on its spool thus making the spring weaker with time. I have a solution but it's something I won't tell you guys since its such a vital part of of a vehicle regarding safety that I wouldn't feel comfortable giving a tutorial sorry..

 

Not any more stiff or dirty than any of my other vehicles. I cleaned them about a year ago and that made it a bit better. I think the spring/tensioner inside of the mechanism is shot. I am willing to purchase new belts if it comes to that, but will try to source a cheaper method by repair first.

 

Also a side note when removing seat belt make sure you pull the belt at least half way, and then make a knot so it won't recoil . Why? Once it recoils all the way it looses tension then you have a useless belt. Just FYI.

 

Mine is currently Not useable. That's about as unsafe as it gets.
I'm going to look for an after market replacement if fiddling with this does not help

 

Don't drive like Jaime, and you won't need them .... Just playing

Checked out my local clist ads, Sous and seems as though a used replacement can be had fairly easy, if need be

 

I found a service that guarantees their work called safety restore in Wakefield MA:
https://www.safetyrestore.com/seat-b...-accident.html
I'm going to take mine apart and go from there, thanks.

 

That is the second company I emailed this morning. Waiting to hear something back from them before taking mine out.

I will also check C-list in my local area, good idea.

 

Mine are weak as well and I'm keeping an eye on this. I left one go to the scrap yard in that short bus I dissected and I've been kicking myself in the **** ever since. I suspect that the spring has gotten weak on there.

 

I went out and was looking at the belts again. They are clean, probably cleaner than when they rolled off the factory floor. The slide at the top is clean and worn, so it is smooth. The only part that I see failing at this point is the spring. Rightfully so though, it is just a cheap *** spring and after 17 years of use, it has just worn down.

Based on what I can find on C-list locally and what SafetyStore tells me I will move forward with a fix action. I will get this resolved though, stay tuned!