Seat Belt Recoil

[carguy87]

Is there any way to fix our pathetic front seat belt clock springs? I hate that I have to manually feed the belt back in to the B-pillar for it to wind again.

[txjeeptx]

I haven't tried to repair one on an Eagle, but maybe some dry silicone lube spray on all the friction points like the shoulder belt fairlead and the bearing surfaces of the spool mechanism. Make sure the belt has rolled onto the spool in an even manner, it could be off center and causing the spool to drag on the sides of its bracket. I re-wound the spring on my full size Jeep's retractable lap belt when it came unsprung once, but I don't recall how I did it. It was amazingly simple on the fsj retractor, that's why I forget what I did.

[jim]

Seat belt retractors work just like any recoil, like a lawnmower recoil starter or a chain saw recoil.
If it gets away from you while you're attempting to rewind it, it can fly across a den and halfway down a hall.  You can probably guess how I know.

[BenM]

The spring may be a little weak, but it was never very strong to begin with. What really gets them is that the waxy lube they use tends to get stiff over time. It doesn't help if you have the nylon webbing getting stiff too.

The best solution I've found is to pull the belt out really far and use some WD-40 or silicone spray to soften up the OEM lube. You want something light and clear so it doesn't stain the belts and soaks into the old waxy substance.

Fabric softener is good for the nylon.

[carguy87]

Looks like I'll be finding some new retractors then, lol. I already tore mine apart last year, completely removed the glue stuck in them, wound the spring as tight as my partner and I could keep it under control, and used some All-In-One to lube it up, seat belt was perfectly pliable.  Still just too weak and hardly recoils. Oh well, springs do get old I guess.