Seat belt doesn't retract worth a damn...

[barrys]

I've got a 94 Ranger and the seat belt was not retracting all the way. I read up here and at TheRangerStation and found I'm really really not alone. This is a widely experienced problem on most Ford vehicles -- some say for many decades. It's so common in fact that Ford's got a "repair kit" to address it which is referenced in this TSB:

http://www.stangnet.com/images/stories/docs/sn95_TSBs/05-16-11.pdf

But, further reading told me that that's an expensive piece of teflon tape that you put on the "D" ring above your shoulder because that friction point is what causes trouble. And, reading even more, I find that it doesn't work very well after a while.

Clearly this problem is related to age and use. My driver's side is much worse than my passenger side.

I'm wide open to other suggestions and I've read over a hundred of them before posting this.

More answers to anticipated questions...
1. The retractor mechanism is part of the entire seat belt assembly. It cannot be taken apart or replaced separately. It's internal parts cannot be lubricated or replaced. It's a PITA to get to (remove plenty of interior panels) and the chances of getting a new seat belt that color matched is damn near impossible and would cost between 250 and 400 dollars.

2. Most people just deal with it and pull it taught before getting out of the truck.

3. Don't let it keep getting stuck in the door or it will fray and then you're hosed.

4. Getting one from a junk yard is widely not recommended since most of those cars were wrecked which could mean major stress on the seat belt retractor.

5. Shooting lubricant into the retractor is going to coat the seat belt with gunk that you don't want on your shirt. And, it's likely to eventually become gewy just making it worse in the long run.

6. Cleaning the belt and the "D" ring usually helps.

So, here's what I did which improved things a lot but didn't make it work like new by any means...

I cleaned the belt fabric with a small amount of Naptha and left it taught until it dried. Naptha is a great oil/grease eater so you don't want that getting into the retractor.

I then buffed out the "D" ring with some high quality 0000 steel wool.

Then, I pulled the seat belt out all the way and let it retract back while holding it up beyond the "D" ring to let it go back all the way. Wash, rinse, repeat about 5 times.

All of this made it a lot better and took a total of about 10 minutes of labor.

 

[Carguy3J]

There is a ribbon spring inside. Technically, you could take the assembly apart and try to rewind the spring, to make it tighter and make up for lost tension. It's very tricky though, and it will be under quite a bit of tension when wound. You could easily hurt yourself if it came apart in the wrong way. I tried it once with a '90 Buick Regal 2dr. It was impossible to find a junkyard one in the right color, since it only fit the 2dr, and most yards won't split up a good door assembly. The results were slightly improved, but barely worth the effort.

In your case, a junkyard replacement should be much easier to find. Just find one that looks pretty clean. At this point, most 1st gen you will find in the junkyard are there for mechanical failure, not wrecks. Even if it was wrecked, I wouldn't worry, unless it was a really bad one.

 

[barrys]

As far as I can see from reading up, you can't take that retractor apart. But, I didn't try so I'm not sure.

For the boneyard ones, even if they came out of a truck that wasn't in a wreck, I'm guessing you'd still end up with an old, well used retractor with a spent spring that will have a similar problem. But, it would be easy enough to test before tearing it out of the donor. To do that, you'll need a T50 torx socket and you have to pull the rear interior quarter trim.

 

[BrianDye]

The weird thing about my last 3 vehicles is that its the passenger side thats worn out...
And it bugs me SO horribly bad! I wouldnt spend more than a hundred bucks for 2 BRAND NEW assemblies though (Seatbelt and mechanisms).

 

[barrys]

There are online vendors selling "universal" 3 point seat belts for about 50.00. God only knows what that means and how many hours you'd have to spend drilling sheet metal and soldering to get those puppy's hooked up. And, I'm not sure if ###ia is the right color for me and my ranger.