Driver's seat belt
06-03-2011, 01:44 PM
#1
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Driver's seat belt I somehow smashed the plastic piece on the part of the seatbelt that clips into the receptacle. Is it possible to replace this part, or do I need a whole new seatbelt?
06-03-2011, 05:20 PM
#2
If you're referring to the plastic piece that fits over the metal buckle part of the seatbelt, then yes it is possible to replace just that piece. The procedure is a bit more detailed then just remove and replace though.
Find one at a junkyard, unbolt the belt from the floor only. You'll have the plastic sleeve the belt goes into now. Look on it for a bunch of threads that have been used to sew the entire plastic belt assembly together. It is basically a little clump of grey or whatever color thread. Used a blade to carefully slice through the thread. Remove the thread bits. Remove the plastice sleeve. It's very snug on there so it will require flexing of the sleeve when you pull it off.
The plastic part that slides on the buckle needs to be pried/flexed just a bit, not enough to break it, but enough to slide it off. There's a plastic ridge/stop/whatever stopping it from sliding off normally. Just flip it over to the other side and you should see the ridge that stops it, and what you need to pry up to slide it off. At this point, a small metal piece will likely fall out of the assembly when you slide the plastic off the buckle. Slide the lplastic part off the belt now and don't lose the little metal bar/thing.
If you want the metal part of the buckle as well, slide that off. Now go home. Take all the pieces and clean them off. Who knows where that buckle has been. If you look at the plastic only piece, you'll see a little ridge on one side(inside) where the little metal bar/thing fits in. You need to reinstall it when you put the two halves together though otherwise since there's nothing holding it in now, it'll just fall out. What's it do? I dunno. May be to give a bit of grip to the plastic piece so it doesn't bounce around. Do you need it? Likely not, but it can't hurt to reinstall it anyway.
Now do the same procedure to remove the buckle from your broken belt. Then reverse the installation. That plastic part of the buckle will require you flex it a couple times to get it on and off the buckle, so just be careful not to break it. Also, it may require flexing a bit to get it over the button/stop that's built into the belt itself to keep the entire buckle from sliding to the floor.
This procedure sounds worse than it is, but took me maybe 20 minutes total to remove and reinstall. Also, I don't think it's necessary, but if you like you can grab some correct color thread and a needle and re-sew the plastic sleeve to the belt once you're sure everything is install correctly.
I picked up two buckles from belts at the junkyard, the belts were horrid though. Threads hanging off, filthy, etc. So no wasting of a good belt just for a buckle at least. The parts cost me about 1.50, really. Also, with the junkyard belt, you can really just get away with slicing the belt in half and removing the buckle. I listed to procedure for that part to give you a bit of practice on a belt that wasn't your own. But it's not necessary at all.
If you need any other information on this, just let me know. and I do hope this is the piece you were referring to in the first place, lol.
Find one at a junkyard, unbolt the belt from the floor only. You'll have the plastic sleeve the belt goes into now. Look on it for a bunch of threads that have been used to sew the entire plastic belt assembly together. It is basically a little clump of grey or whatever color thread. Used a blade to carefully slice through the thread. Remove the thread bits. Remove the plastice sleeve. It's very snug on there so it will require flexing of the sleeve when you pull it off.
The plastic part that slides on the buckle needs to be pried/flexed just a bit, not enough to break it, but enough to slide it off. There's a plastic ridge/stop/whatever stopping it from sliding off normally. Just flip it over to the other side and you should see the ridge that stops it, and what you need to pry up to slide it off. At this point, a small metal piece will likely fall out of the assembly when you slide the plastic off the buckle. Slide the lplastic part off the belt now and don't lose the little metal bar/thing.
If you want the metal part of the buckle as well, slide that off. Now go home. Take all the pieces and clean them off. Who knows where that buckle has been. If you look at the plastic only piece, you'll see a little ridge on one side(inside) where the little metal bar/thing fits in. You need to reinstall it when you put the two halves together though otherwise since there's nothing holding it in now, it'll just fall out. What's it do? I dunno. May be to give a bit of grip to the plastic piece so it doesn't bounce around. Do you need it? Likely not, but it can't hurt to reinstall it anyway.
Now do the same procedure to remove the buckle from your broken belt. Then reverse the installation. That plastic part of the buckle will require you flex it a couple times to get it on and off the buckle, so just be careful not to break it. Also, it may require flexing a bit to get it over the button/stop that's built into the belt itself to keep the entire buckle from sliding to the floor.
This procedure sounds worse than it is, but took me maybe 20 minutes total to remove and reinstall. Also, I don't think it's necessary, but if you like you can grab some correct color thread and a needle and re-sew the plastic sleeve to the belt once you're sure everything is install correctly.
I picked up two buckles from belts at the junkyard, the belts were horrid though. Threads hanging off, filthy, etc. So no wasting of a good belt just for a buckle at least. The parts cost me about 1.50, really. Also, with the junkyard belt, you can really just get away with slicing the belt in half and removing the buckle. I listed to procedure for that part to give you a bit of practice on a belt that wasn't your own. But it's not necessary at all.
If you need any other information on this, just let me know. and I do hope this is the piece you were referring to in the first place, lol.
