I've searched but couldn't find the answer here... so hopefully someone can answer and/or point me in the right direction...

Every other car I've had, the seatbelts will lock when I give it a good tug. The seatbelts on my 87 don't want to lock to matter how hard I try. I checked out the seatbelts in 7 (yes, seven) ThirdGens at the junkyard yesterday and they all had the same symptoms (the ones that actually retracted, anyway).

I'm pretty sure it's not my weakly arms and verified by checking the seatbelts in non-Camaro cars. So is this normal? It just seems hard to believe that all 4 seatbelts in my car AND all the seatbelts in the junkyard cars that I checked would be 'broken' in the same manner.

Cheers
Jeff ~

 

My '87 is the same way. I think it's on purpose and they only lock in an accident or heavy G forces. A lot of folks apparently swap in 4thgen seatbelts since they are at least fixed at the lower point.

 

did you try a panic stop?

 

There's a GM rebuild kit for the lathes. I just bought it off EBay. The part number is 14097930.

 

The retractors on the roof have inertial sensors in them. They don't lock due to rapid pull like others. If your car is parked on a steep hill, they sometimes won't release. Its a pretty poor system. You can test them when they are removed from the car by tilting the retractor back and forth.

 

Oh, I thought you meant the actual latch....DUH!