While dropping my daughter off at school this morning, the seat belt buckle on my 85 300TD caught in the door as it shut. The sliding mechanism on the buckle broke. (the top plastic bar broke right off). I was surprised to see that there was no metal reinforcment in that top plastic piece. Now the buckle flails up and down the belt and it is not as easy to find it when buckling up.
Has anyone replaced the buckle? It looks to me as if the bottom attachment must be unbolted and the stitching holding the bottom metal attachment undone in order to slide on a new buckle. Is that correct? If so, any ideas about how to sew up the belt again? I do have an industrial sewing machine, but getting the vehicle close enough to do that sewing seems impossible since it's in a room in my house and weighs a couple of hundred pounds. Is the procedure to remove the entire seat belt mechanism to stitch it back together. How hard is it to remove the whole mechanism?
I wonder how frequently this happens since I imagine a lot of buckles get caught in the door. Not making that slide control bar out of metal seems a little chintzy, not a typical MB trait.
The fact that it broke so easily makes me wonder if there was ever a recall on the buckle to replace the sliding mechanism with something more substantial.

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1977 300d 70k--sold 08
1985 300TD 185k+
1984 307d 126k--sold 8/03
1985 409d 65k--sold 06
1984 300SD 315k--daughter's car
1979 300SD 122k--sold 2/11
1999 Fuso FG Expedition Camper
1993 GMC Sierra 6.5 TD 4x4
1982 Bluebird Wanderlodge CAT 3208--Sold 2/13

You shouldn't have to unstitch the webbing to get the new buckle over it. I think too that you can get just the plastic part and it just slips over the metal part and then you thread the webbing through it.
Probably fits tight but there should be no reason to have to take out the stitching.
Of course I have been wrong before...

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'99 S420 - Mommies
'72 280SE 4.5 - looking to breathe life into it
'84 300SD Grey - Sold
'85 300SD Silver - Sold
'78 Ski Nautique

My drivers side belt was like that when I forst got the car. All I did was switch it with one or the backseat ones. I hardly ever take passengers and if I do, the seat belt back there works fine, they just gotta fish for it. I unbolted the seatbelt from the floor and it was, however, a little tricky to get the metal bracket through the plastic slot. It IS possible, just be careful not to break the new top plastic piece or go through all the trouble and put it on backwards so the belt latch hangs upside down or backwards when not in use.

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1982 300D Turbo "Helga"
380,000 miles