Safety Emergency-Stuck seatbelt retractor

[d.delano]

Cold weather here must have contributed to the failure of my driver's seatbelt retractor- it's stuck after I tried to buckle up last night. My suspicion is the little steel ball inside it that locks the mechanism is lodged up somehow. Does anyone know which side of the retractor has the coil spring and which side has the mechanism? I opened one up once and the spring hit me in the face. Impossible to put it back in after it comes out like that without special equipment. Unfortunately I forgot which side it was. If I knew which cover to pop off I might be able to free up whatever's jamming it somehow.

Does anyone know how to get in touch with this guy:

http://www.msdra.com/mercedesparts.htm

I might be able to score a good used retractor from him, but his tel# is a fax line and his email doesn't work.

Would anyone happen to have one they could sell? I need to fix this ASAP; can't drive a car nowadays without a functioning seatbelt!
As always any help is appreciated.