I have my 84' base firebird, but had same problem on the 87' after you belt up, the belt leaves a good bit of slack, you pull it out slightly and it normally retracts all the way but, it eventually "through moving about while driving" regains this slack. its a b#$ch to have to keep working with it. again, put it on, pull it out slightly, retract, drive, loosen, pull slightly, retract.

What is going on? I inspected it all and nothing seems broken.

 

do a search for the "4th gen seatbelt swap", you'll be glad you did.

 

safer?

 

yeah they're an easy swap, and they're so much better then the 3rd gen ones its incredible.

 

I just reinstalled my 3rd gen's and my headliner

I did a search and didn't find anything, did it on google as well. Only did a quick one though.

 

https://www.thirdgen.org/4thgenbelts

good luck!

 

oh. thanks.

 

Yup, that's normal. I like it because I can't stand it when there's a constant tension and pulling on my shoulder, but on the flip side, it bugs me when it becomes loose and starts to flap in the wind on my vert. Then I need to give it a little tug to retract again.

 

...damn you verts. Honestly I wanted T's but not enough money. probably buy a bandit and restore it, after the house, mortagage, stubby pickup and such. My gf likes the older pickups with the stubby back ends. they're cute.

Anyway, I wanted a racing harness but NJ won't allow it, means the car is "race ready" idiots, its safer. I'm not positive on that but i thought i ran acrossed it while reading. I'll pick up the 4th gen belts, probably from a scrapper, maybe new ones.

 

I opened this hoping to find ideas on how to fix the stock belts, as I have this problem on my dad's '88 Chevy truck. I dont think 4th gen seat belts will fit that.

 

I wonder if there's some way to just re-tension the spring in the retractors. I may take one apart from my parts car and see what comes about. I too was hoping to find a fix in here, rather than a replacement.

 

This may sound odd, but... I have more slack in my passenger belt than in my drivers belt. I would think it would be the other way around unless the previous owner was always hauling around a ton of fat people.

I tried taking apart a seat belt I got out of a friends junked thirdgen and all I have to say is be careful when you pop off the cover the spring is under (yellow tinted plastic piece). I just kept taking things off, and all of a sudden it just like exploded in my face. Needless to say I fell backwards and almost sh** myself but after I found out what caused it I was able to put it back to together and it now seems to have a little more tension on it. Only thing keeping me from doing this on my seat belts is that I'm afraid I will mess up the headliner or not be able to get it to fit right or something like that.

 

headliner is easy, have someone help you, and slowly. there are 3 clips at the windshield and you have to remove the A pillars, also need to loosen the panels next to the rear seats, the plastic ones that the soft speaker cover mounts to.

clips are the worst, even to get back in. Oh, don't forget to remove the dome light, remove cover, remove bulb "very hot" "people could tell you which fuse to pull, or use a rag" and use needle nose pliers to remove the two metal clips, they push back on so are easier to install than remove.

(also, i was working on a paintball gun, bolt popped out "$hit aluminum guns" hit me in the throat, fell back and almost $hit myself, scary stuff, hahaha)

Oh, i have two belts for sale, I may just keep one and tear it up, fix the problem. Will keep the drivers side for sale, if I decide to dissassemble one it'll be the passanger. classicindustries.com has a lot of firebird parts, that and the paddock "not sure of their site" and jegs.com has a bit of stuff. If anyone needs help looking for new parts, I spent the last 7years+/- researching parts.