Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Morgan Three Wheeler & Super 3 Seat belt inertia reel locked

My seat belts won't retract all the way. Not to much of a big deal but the passenger side won't pull out far enough to use. How do I get to the reels to repair or replace them?

Probably caused by dirt and or corrosion in the reel mechanism. When I received my car, which according to the first owner had run for several thousand miles before a rear mudguard and seat belt protector plate had been fitted (standard on cars from about 2014), the reels were FILLED with dirt, and often locked up as you describe.

It's a right PITA to get to and remove the reels and clean them out. At the time I did mine I was undecided about if and how I should lubricate the mechanism, so I didn't do anything in that regard. Now that my drivers side belt has started locking up again (after 3 years use), I will get the opportunity to do this all again, and perhaps I will do a better job of documenting the process and sorting the mechanism.

As I recall, to completely separate the belts from the car you will need to cut a slot in the alloy back panel where the belts pass through. Or perhaps I did that to make it easy to remove the panel without taking the belts loose at the outer ends. And even with the seats and all the back panels removed, getting to the anchor bolts took some creativity, though I'm sorry I don't recall the specifics.

When I did this job the first time, I took the opportunity to remove about 30" of belt webbing (had a local upholstery shop resew the ends) to allow the belts to not be loose and floppy when not in use. Obviously the belts, in my car at least, are not bespoke units and had ridiculously long webbing as provided.

Btw-it's helpful to those trying to help you if the year of your machine is part of your post, or better yet, your signature.

Thank you. Just realized I was t sharing the year and model. In my signature now.

If I messed it up. I have a 2012 M3W. Had her for 6 days.

Recall that our early 2012 car had some form of cover for the belt units added later in 2012 as this was a recognised problem - the mudguard made the back area a whole order of magnitude cleaner so may be enough to prevent the problem.

I have done this job recently. Briefly put as follows. Will check if I have any pix
You remove the rear wheel cover
You need to remove seats, seat back and the bottom and top bulkhead panels.
You can undo the bolts that retain the top shoulder guides. It is a PITA as they are quite long and disappear under the body work!
Need lots a patience to get back in. This allows removal of top bulkhead and the webbing

The belt retraction unit is awkward however the early models like mine ,2012, do not have a bottom cover which allows access for a spanner. If there is a bottom cover it is pop riveted in, so requires brute force removal of rivets

Once out I got new replacement retractor units but retained existing webbing. Webbing is too long really and prevents proper tightening when not being worn.

I had a couple of spacers on mine, used to clear a bolt head in that area? Fiddley in extreme.

Easiest way to see how the belts fit is to look at the M3W parts book. Drawings are quite clear.

Parts book is readily available for download. Just google/search on forum.

The M3W Parts Book, like a lot of other information, is freely available here: https://www.mtwc.co.uk/5-speeder-publications-and-links-2/

I am going to revive this thread.

It is too hot and wet in Florida to enjoy my M3W in August so I decided to attend to my locking inertia reels. Does anyone have more specific instructions on how to get at them? As described above, I am going to shorten the webs. I amy also install a mud guard as my M3W is an early 2012.

Thank you in advance.

A mud guard will help a lot going forward. There is also the formed plastic guard that protects the belt reel area which I highly recommend. This is a standard item on later cars.

I have my belts out at the moment, waiting for replacements from seatbeltplanet.com to arrive as I got tired of frequent nuisance locking. Upon disassembly, the originals were very corroded internally, no doubt from their early days before suitable weather protection was provided.

Custom ordered ones with a 90" long belt length to eliminate the problem of excess (and therefore droopy) belt length. My previously shortened ones measured 94" and are much more than enough for even a rather large person.

Seat belt planet offers standard units with 110" FWIW.

To remove the seat belt reels, first completely remove the seat cushions and backs, then remove or at least loosen the lower alloy bulkhead panel.
Pop off the plastic caps and remove the retaining bolts for the ends of the seat belt near the driveshaft tunnel.
Remove the two retaining bolts for the seat belt shoulder loops just under the bodywork. A combination wrench is needed here, and once you use the ring end of the wrench to loosen the bolts a few turns, switch to the open end of the wrench so it doesn't get trapped between the bolt and the body work (ask me how I know). This part is very tedious as you can only go a fraction of a turn at a time.

Now the upper alloy bulkhead panel should be loose, and using three hands you thread the loose end of the belts through the slot in the upper panel and remove the panel.

The belt reels should be visible just above the bevel box. The mounting bolt heads can be difficult to get to depending on your wrench/socket options, but there is an access panel just below the reels (see photo) which can be removed to allow you to get a wrench on them from below. The nuts for the mounting bolts bolts are accessed from the rear wheel area, and you will want your mudguard or water shield removed to make access for them easier.

To make future access to the belts easier, on my car I drilled out the rivets on the bumped out portion of the upper alloy bulkhead panel and replaced them with rivnuts and screws, and cut a slot in this panel to allow slipping the belts through (see photo). This way only that smaller upper portion of the bulkhead can be removed to gain future access to the reel area.

Additionally, I removed the portion of the main upper alloy panel that is captive under the shoulder loop belts to allow this panel to be removed without removing the shoulder loop bolts. Then I added back two small screw to locate this panel. (see bottom photo)

So some photos which may help. Sorry I don't have any of everything installed and before I modded things.

Factory plastic shield to protect seat belt reel area. Zip ties in place around chassis tubes:




Seat belt reel main mounting bolt (holes at bottom of well area) You can see the alloy access panel just below the mounting holes which, after removal of two small screws, permits you to get a wrench on the mounting bolt heads.




The modified center panel with a slot to permit the seat belt webbing to slip through.




Modified main upper panel showing alternative mounting screws

Thank you. Very helpful. I'll start next week. I started sorting my MG TD SUs and it got to hot for me today. It is about 95 F and humidity to match.