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On 3 Nov 2005 at 7:48, Timothy Kender. wrote: > I am frustrated with my 73 Fastback's seat belts. The shoulder > harness tends to flip-flop/tangle as I pull it out to wrap around me. > Specifically: As I pull the belt, it turns upside down as it is drawn > up through the chrome/steel loop that is anchored to the door pillar. > This may flip itself upside down twice or more as I pull it up. Okay, I understand your complaint, but I don't think I've ever seen this behavior. Mine don't do this. > Now, I know someone will ask: > 1. Is the belt installed correctly? Yes. > 2. Is it tangled inside the roll-up area at the bottom? No, it > only tangles up as it goes through the silver loop. The roll-up will > happily TRY to eat the flipped-over belt, but it can't. Too thick to > eat. Okay, so at least we know that all of these things are okay. > So, my point is: All seems in order. It just does this annoying > behaviour! IS it missing something in the loop? Is there supposed to > be some rolling device missing from the silver loop? Should there be > a roller set-up that would keep the belt flat as it feeds through the > solver loop? There's nothing like this that should be there. The only thing like this is the black plastic piece that snaps over the top of the silver loop thing. I think that's only decorative, however. A couple of thoughts come to mind: The silver loop needs to be able to pivot freely on it's mounting bolt. If it can't, then maybe this runs the belt into one end of the loop, causing it to fold over itself. There should be a special shoulder bolt with 2 plastic shoulder washers mounting that loop to the body of the car. Sometimes the wrong parts are in there, and sometimes they've just been installed wrong. After all this time, these belts have all gotten full of dirt and sweat. This makes them much stiffer than they were when new, and this makes them hard to manage, although I've never seen the behavior you describe. I recommend to people that they take the belts completely out of the car and wash them in a bucket of laundry detergent. Do a couple of washes and then rinse until the water stops coming out black. You'll probably be amazed at how limber this will make the webbing. This MIGHT help your problem if it is being caused by the fact that some folds have been pressed into your belt from years of being stowed improperly. Let us know if any of this helps. -- Jim Adney jadney@vwtype3.org Madison, WI 53711-3054 USA ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ List info at http://www.vwtype3.org/list | mailto:gregm@vwtype3.org ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~