northfacer581

ok so ive read over the link on 4x4wire now about 10 times, about how to fix the tension in the seat belt so it doesnt hang out when you slam the door.

has anyone done this?

im having difficulty understanding exactly what that writeup is saying. ive got the plastic cover off, ive taken the 14mm bolt off, now what? can anyone explain this to me in dummy terms? that would be greatly appreciated.

garrett1478

i'd like to know this also... i remember reading that and not really understanding it... has anyone actually done it successfully?

northfacer581

see i got the assembly that holds the seatbelt out of its hole against the frame, but i have no idea what to do now. on each side of the belt are labels that say "do not remove" so i wana make sure i do this right.

the pictures in the writeup on 4x4 wire dont really show me what i need to know. and it doesnt look like its from a 3rd gen 4r, because those pictures dont match what im seeing.

any help would be greatly appreciated.

Spanky

I have also read that site on tightening the seat belts, and like you said it was kinda vague at best. Im sick of my girlfriend slamming the door on my belt so I am wanting to do this. If anyone has tried this yet please let me know how it went, because Im gonna try to tackle it in the next few days when I get a chance.

TRDDude

I've tried the suggestions to tighten the seatbelts with little success.

You don't actually take the pretensioner apart. Once you remove the 14mm bolts and remove the pretensioner you need to pull the seat belt all the way out (totally unwind the pretensioner). You need to hold it exactly vertical (as it is bolted into the truck) or else it locks and won't let you pull the belt out.

Once you are at the end of the belt, hold the drum that the belt is wound up on and push the belt through the slot in the drum so you can push the pin out of the end of the belt. DON'T LET GO OF THE DRUM OR IT WILL TOTALLY UNWIND!!! Once the pin is out of the belt, you can pull the belt through the drum and out of the way.

Now, the idea is to turn the drum to wind it up tighter. With the drum wound up tighter you can push the seatbelt back through the slot in the drum, replace the pin and then let the drum go and it should wind the seatbelt up.

I did this to both front seatbelts on my '03 Tacoma. After I did this the passenger side seatbelt would lock up and not pull out. I had to take the pretensioner back out to get enough slack to release the belt. This happened a few times so I took it back apart and unwound the drum back to where it was before and haven't had anymore problems.

I didn't really notice any difference after doing this, the seatbelts still retract slowly. I should note that I wasn't able to wind the drum up much more than it already was. Maybe because my truck is so new it hadn't stretched. It might work better on older trucks.

neoworm0

Don't waste your time. It doesn't work on any of the trucks!

Funrunner

Hey, if you guys figure this out, please share. Mine's been doing this, and now my belt's filthy from getting shut in the dirty door.

Until I read this, I had never heard it could be tightened up. That would be nice.

waskillywabbit

iTrader: (-1)

Take 2 seconds to make sure the seatbelt gets pulled back up as you get out and after a while it will be second nature. Most of the time those tensioners get dirty and full of crap and the lubrication doesn't work as well. I took mine apart, cleaned them w/ some electronic cleaner, relubed them w/ a dab of grease, cleaned the seatbelts while it was all apart, and then put it back together. It was all pretty intuitive and they work fine, but I still take the 2 seconds to make sure they pull back as they should so I don't slame them in the door.

Persistence always beats resistance.

Spanky

How did you clean your seatbelts?? I read on that 4x4wire site that when he had his seat belts off, he threw em in the washing machine. Being how everyone here is saying trying to do the tension mod is a waste of time, I was thinking of cleaning my belts without taking them off somehow, and probably cleaning/lubing the tensioners inside. But now that you have already done it, I was wondering how you went about it?

waskillywabbit

iTrader: (-1)

I cleaned the tensioner and the rest of the seat belt first, so as not to dirty up the seatbelt material again. After I had that done, then I stretched them out and clamped both ends. I used a vice and a placed nail. Then I soaked them in carpet cleaner/stain remover from my little Green Machine (steam cleaner). Let that sit awhile, I mean they were soaked, dripping wet. Then I cleaned them w/ the steam machine until they looked braned new. Piece of cake. I've cleaned all my interior w/ the little Green Machine, as well as the seatbelts. Then you take some degreaser, like 409, to the plastic parts on the seatbelt locking mechanism (where the button is) and the rest of the plastic, use a toothbrush to clean those real good, then put some Vinylex on there for protection and they look brand new all over.

I have thrown other seat belts in the washing machine, but the metal ends are too large in my opinion and will damage your washing machine tub.

Spanky

ok thanks, thats pretty much what i planned on doing, renting a carpet cleaner and doing pretty much what you did. thanks for the heads up

Spanky

so i forgot to do a follow up on this.... its pretty much a waste of time! besides the fact that my seatbelts arent dirty, which i like. but other than that... my girlfriend still slams the door on my poor belts, and i still have to manually force them up everytime i get outta the truck.