Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Morgan Three Wheeler & Super 3 M3W seatbelt removal?

The passenger seatbelt on my M3W is jammed. It clicks immediately you try to pull it out to put on. I have tried easing it out slowly and/or at an angle to no avail. To investigate I have managed to get the seat backs off but the belt disappears behind a panel that is riveted and seems to be sealed in place.

Some help from the boffins on here as to how I should progress would be much appreciated.

Get ready for an adventure. It is a right PITA to remove the belt assemblies. But you will need to remove them to deal with the issue you are having as the retraction mechanism is either corroded or filled with dirt/debris thrown up by the rear tire, or both. In my case I elected to replace the assemblies, as my early car had run for some years without both the upper water/dirt shield and the mudguard that were introduced sometime later (2013-2014?) and as a consequence the internal metal components were very corroded. My replacement seat belts came from seatbeltplanet.com in the U.S., and I ordered them with 110" webbing length so as not to have droopy belts with no one in the car. Also specified longer receptacle mounts which hugely improved ease of use.

As far as removing the belts, I'm going from memory here, as it's been a few years since I did this. And note that my 2012 machine may have had detail differences from later ones.

After removing the seats, I removed the bolts at the end of the belts that fasten near the driveshaft tunnel, then, using an open end wrench I removed the bolts that held the upper slide in position (near your head when seated). These were very tedious to remove as there is precious little room to work, and you can only loosen a flat or so at a time. (I'm guessing the factory installed these before the body is seated on the chassis.) This allowed me to remove the large alloy bulkhead plate. You should then be able to see and access the the large main fastening bolt near the bottom of the reel assembly. I do believe you will need to access that bolt and nut from both the passenger compartment and from the rear wheel area (remove the mudguard if you have one). And I do believe there is a small alloy shield under the belts that needs an access panel removed to allow a wrench up from below to remove the main mounting bolt. I seem to recall I drilled out some rivets on this small shield as well, and replaced them with nut inserts and screws.

Sometime during the process, I modified the large bulkhead panel with a slot at top center and opened holes where the pivot bolts are (see photo) which allows me to install and remove this panel without removing the belt hardware. If you do this mod take care to smooth any cut edges so as not to snag the belt webbing. After repainting this area black, the mod is all but invisible once reinstalled.

Maybe the following is of any interest to you.


Seat belt inertia reel locked

Thank you so much for your reply's, Herrie and Bitsobrits as they both certainly helped. I took on board some advice and replaced the rivets on the back panel with rivnuts so it will be a tad easier next time. It is all done, at last, and I can also now offer some advise. I decided to replace both belts although it was only the passenger that was not un-reeling ( think I made that word up!) . I got hold of a UK company called BHIuk and spoke to Graham White. He could not have been more helpful and said he would replace the mechanism ( not the belts) on both, with a German brand that would never give me the problem again. And said he would turn them around in a day if I sent them to him. Which he did and the bill was around £84 in total including post and pack which I thought was very reasonable.
The only issue, and this is some thing he would not have realised, is that the hole in the new brackets were about 5mm off the hole in the car as they could not go down far enough being of a slightly different shape but I made some adjustment to solve this problem. His tel in 07792594354 if you have a similar problem and I have no affiliation with this company. Again thanks for your help it is much appreciated.

Thanks for the info Vitaloni, particularly about BHI uk that is only a few miles from where I live. Getting the seat belt mechanisms repaired or replaced with a good alternative has been a problem for sometime. If BHI uk have a good repair solution then that will be the way to go for UK owners at least. I will add their contact details to the next Alternative Parts List update.

I like the modified alloy panel Bitsobrits.

Well I have made good progress until I got to the upper bolts holding the upper slides in position. How on earth do you even start to remove these bolts? They are so tight I just can't get them to budge. I guess it's a case of getting a much longer spanner to get the leverage?

It should not be a big problem.
But when a former owner has used Loctite, than that's the problem. Loctite should not be used there.
Just check it from time to time.
Try to heat the bold-head with a normal hair dryer. Red loctite needs up to 300 degr C to solve, but the 90 degr C of a hair dryer will work sometimes.
And when attaching it again just use a good anti-seasing compound like Tefgel.
Always avoid Loctite when possible.

A very good point Herrie. At this point in time it's just not moving so loctite is a definite possibility. The hairdryer will be out tomorrow. Why on earth Morgan put bolts there without easy access beats the crap out of me.

Ok I still can't budge these two bolts and I'm at risk of rounding them off if I continue with what I am doing. Anyone have any ideas? I am using a 17mm open ended spanner but am wondering if this bolt is an imperial size? Maybe that could be the root of my problem?

Hi
I am afraid we have a miscommunication.
I thought you were talking about the upper bolts in between the headrests. Where the belt slides down in the retractors.
That wrench is 12mm. And try not to use an open end but always - when possible - a close end and the best is 6 sides instead of 12 sides.
Make a picture so we know were you are working.