Seatbelt Buttler

[Dzenko]

The driver side arm that hands over the seatbelt on the driver's side has stopped handing over the belt. The mechanism on the arm works. The passenger side also works perfectly fine. Nothing is broken but the belt skips.
Previously I used to iron the belt. The problem seems to go away temporarily but returns. I ended up ironing the belt more than what I did my cloths.
Ironing doesn't do the trick anymore.

Any other suggestions?

[Shazz]

You can replace the arm with new again. It's not that expensive.

I've just coded it out completely and grab the belt like every other car I've been in.

[Dzenko]

Originally Posted by Shazz

You can replace the arm with new again. It's not that expensive.

I've just coded it out completely and grab the belt like every other car I've been in.

In my opinion the arm works perfectly fine. I reckon the belt is what I need to replace... It developed a fold that I can't iron out any more.

[Shazz]

I've seen fixes where people 'starch' their belts before ironing. You'll have to find some in an antique store somewhere

[Dzenko]

Originally Posted by Shazz

I've seen fixes where people 'starch' their belts before ironing. You'll have to find some in an antique store somewhere

I have found starch and used it last time around. Still nothing. It's frustrating.

[Ingenio]

I tried the spray on starch and iron approach but in the end just coded them out. They're a but noisy and slow so when the belt stopped grabbing, it was an easy call to retire them...

[Beemdog]

In a severe accident, starching a seat belt could cause a failure due to lowering its tensile strength/making it more brittle.

[baseking]

Originally Posted by Dzenko

The driver side arm that hands over the seatbelt on the driver's side has stopped handing over the belt. The mechanism on the arm works. The passenger side also works perfectly fine. Nothing is broken but the belt skips.
Previously I used to iron the belt. The problem seems to go away temporarily but returns. I ended up ironing the belt more than what I did my cloths.
Ironing doesn't do the trick anymore.

Any other suggestions?

Take a look at my DIY thread - seems to work 100% of the time for me.

I'll update it now, found an even better long-term solution. It doesn't fix the arm being flabby issue though, just the seat belt wear over time.

[Ingenio]

Thanks for the solution but I'm confused by the video. It says placing the hairpin 2.25" below the hole in the car works... but then there's also talk of adjusting the buckle position... can you clarify please?

[baseking]

Originally Posted by Ingenio

Thanks for the solution but I'm confused by the video. It says placing the hairpin 2.25" below the hole in the car works... but then there's also talk of adjusting the buckle position... can you clarify please?

Yeah sure, when I shot the video I hadn't figured out that the buckle needed to be on top of the pin. Basically if it's not on top of the pin, when you stretch the belt and try to buckle, the pin will try to go through the buckle(impossible), so the buckle needs to be on top of the pin (i.e. rest on it) for that not to happen.

Just try it out with the pin first, then remember the place where you put it and it worked, remove the pin. Move the buckle up the seatbelt and hold it with one hand, then re-insert pin around seat belt, let the buckle slowly glide down, it will stop at the pin. For me the buckle pretty much lines up with the trim line, maybe a bit above it, you need to tweak it a bit if the butler hits the buckle, it's too low.

[Ingenio]

Ok... Gotcha... Will have a play over the weekend... Thanks for the clarification...

[baseking]

No worries mate, let me know how it works out, would love it if it's something that works for everybody.

[vsix]

Iron your belt.

[baseking]

Originally Posted by vsix

Iron your belt.

Doesn't seem to work for too long and it's too much of a hassle. The idea was to solve it once and for all, at least on the seat belt side, the butler arm can still fuck up.