Gen 1 Seatbelt Retractors

[Walter Clark]

I am posting this partially as a PSA and partially to show what I did as a short term fix.

Someone on the Facebook VCA group recently posted about an incident that showed them that their seatbelts did not latch up properly in use so I decided to look into mine on my '94.

First some operational details.

The '94, and I assume earlier and some later years, uses a set of solenoids, in each of the 4 retractors to disable latching when the doors are open. This goes away once both doors are closed.

The mechanism the retractors use to cause the belts to latch is a pendulum that normally hangs vertically in each retractor and activates the latch by swinging in any direction due to either momentum change or gravity (e.g. an incline on which the vehicle sits). When they work I can either park on a steep incline (or decline) of say 20 degrees and tug on the belt, or tug on them while applying a vigorous brake pedal.

Here is a picture of the passenger side retractor with the pendulum cover off, shown hanging vertically. The pendulum is the indistinct gray object just below the small amber appearing bit if plastic.

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This is a picture of pendulum in that same retractor with the retractor sitting on my bench.

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It can be seen that it activates the latch (the zinc plated bar) by pushing it up into the sprockets by rocking and then pushing the amber colored piece of plastic against the bar.

On my car neither shoulder belt retractor would activate and both lap belt retractors work fine.

This is what went wrong with mine. The picture below of of the drivers side pendulum carrier in the pieces as I found it under the cover. The drivers side has a blue plastic pendulum carrier and the passenger side has a yellow plastic carrier. The passenger side was broken also.

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I believe the safe thing to do is to send these off to be fixed by someone who has the correct replacement parts, but at the moment I am 1) not aware of who that would be, and 2) willing to take the Viper out of service for how ever long that takes right at this moment...Maybe December-March, but not September-November.

So, I decided to epoxy the pieces back together for now. I know that expoxy bonding to plastic can range from solid to hopeless depending on the exact plastic being worked with, but I figured if I cleaned the plastic parts with a good solvent, built up around the fractures with the epoxy as much as I could and used a good quality epoxy, it might hold. Plus, I know how to check them now.

A couple more pictures of the repairs and repair in progress...

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[GTS Dean]

Outstanding post with excellent exhibits. Keep them coming!

 

[Goggles Pizano]

Agreed with Dean.

3D print is probably the easiest.

I need to get my 3D printer out the play around with it.

 

[Walter Clark]

Agreed with Dean.

3D print is probably the easiest.

I need to get my 3D printer out the play around with it.

I think the first challenge with any replacement part for the yellow and blue carriers is going to be that the pendulum appears to have been swagged onto what I will call the "nail" after the nail was inserted through the hole of the carrier. So one needs to separate the weight from the nail, then swage them back together (or make up a new equivalent, which could be screwed together).

Also, some redesign of the yellow and blue parts is probably in order to add some buttressing at the corners where the originals broke.

 

[GTS Dean]

I would investigate the unit from RAM trucks or minivans of the period. You may be able to swap out your webbing reel and get a working unit.

 

[Walter Clark]

I have looked into about every business that claims to be able to "repair" seatbelt retractors. Almost all of them list 1996 and up Vipers on their web site so I didnt contact them. I have contacted a couple that do not specify years the can repair and they indicated that they do not have access to the parts needed for these.

Additionally, I havent found another vehicle that appears to use the same upper retractor as in the '94. I say "appears" because none list the retractor portion individually so I have been simply trying to find photos (parts diagrams are very poor in terms of detail).

It might be possible to locate a belt assembly with a single retractor and a fixed upper anchor point, but I thing that would require a lot more work.

 

[GTS Dean]

Imagination + Determination > Unobtainium.

 

[Goggles Pizano]

... pendulum appears to have been swagged onto what I will call the "nail" after the nail was inserted through the hole of the carrier. So one needs to separate the weight from the nail, then swage them back together (or make up a new equivalent, which could be screwed together)...

That unfortunately is standard manufacturing practice for cost saving (material, labor, manufacturing speed, etc) since stuff is not serviceable.

You could 3D a hanging basket and fill it with lead shot or a cage and slip the weight into the cage.

 

[Walter Clark]

I spent some time searching for replacement or NOS belt assemblies. Can be pretty confusing since the gen 1 would seem to have used dual retractors, single retractors, door mounted and chassis mounted belts between 92 and 96. By comparing photos of mine and what I found online I determined that the belts in my '94 are the same as those in the '92, despite what some Viper parts lists say. In that pursuit I located as set of NOS passenger side belts at MoparPartsGiant.com. Part number 0HV60LX9. Nothing for the driver side anymore.

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Without opening the package I have carefully compared this to what I actually have, and they appear identical. Manufactured in 2004, so over 10 years newer than what I have and in theory not as exposed to the stress and environmental ageing of being in a car all that time.

Going to install them later this week and put the repaired set on the shelf.

 

[GTS Dean]

That's a very odd Mopar part number on the bag, but congrats on finding it!

P/N 4708460

 

[Walter Clark]

Couldnt wait... Installed the new one this morning. Attached pic shows the old (stamped info faded and hard to read) and new unit labels. Identical. New part includes captured bolts and trim pieces.

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