Seatbelt stuck
 

My passenger seatbelt is stuck out about 1 foot. It will not pull out anymore, as it shouldn't because it is locked. I can not get it to go back in at all so that it will unlock. Any suggestions?
Thanks
Tim

Typical problem -- you will have to monkey with it to get the ratchet to release -- pull VERY gently up to the lock and then slightly release tension. Should eventually roll back in. You may have to stuff it back in some to get it to release. Don't yank, that's why it's stuck in the first place.

Peter

Thanks Peter!

I tried what you said, and after about two minutes of work, I finally got it.
Thanks a bunch
Tim

I'm going to assume you're NOT talking about the magnetic Kangol belts? :confused:

What?
Tim

Reference:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2461369558&category=34206

Tim:

You're WAY to young to remember Kangol belts -- simple hook latch, not a tang with a hole in it. Impossible to get trapped, as they hold by overlap, but you cannot use that type of latch with an interial reel belt, it would come undone every time you leaned forward and back.

Benz used them, so did BMW, I think, and the were very common on Boeing 727/737 aircraft 40 years ago.

Peter

Our '68 220D had the Kangol belts. They were sure simple to operate and seemed like way less fishing for the parts when you wanted to put them on. Like a previous poster pointed out, they held by overlap. Kinda like hooking the fingers of one hand over and under those of the other. They were so easy to release, as he said, that you can't get trapped in the belts in an emergency. Major disadvantage is you were pretty well strapped in when they were adequately cinched up.

Ahhh, How did a 280 SEL get retractable seat belts?

Required by US law sometime after 1970. Our '68 Ford wagon had separate lap and shoulder belts, but the lap belts were retractable, I think (long time ago, eh?) In 69 or 70, maybe 71, the requirement was retractable belts, and after 72 they had to be three-point.

Peter

Ok, well my '72 has the Kongol non-retractable lap belt.....am I unusual? Ahhhh, let me rephrase that....is my car unusual?

I remember seeing a thread of two on the topic of changing the kongols to retractable type but I must have missed the part about the lap belts.

Lap belts in the 280 are retrating type, in the 220D Kangol.

Go figure.

Peter

Odd. I recall reading a reprint of a road test on a then-new 1972 Ameri-spec 280SEL 4.5 which referred to non-retractable belts. I assumed that they were the Kangols.

Mine is a '72 model year, built in 10/71, and it has the Kangols. That's why I asked in the first place.

I have a very early '72, #7 of the SEL's. Mine has the retractable lapbelts. Were these an option on the 108's?
Thanks
Tim