The seat belts in my '89 Buick EW are driving me Nuckin' Futs. When I fasten the belt, the upper part pulls it self tight against my neck/chest, over time in the seat, the belt gets tighter against my chest and the lap portion get's so tight, I have to release it and re set. All my other GM rides, you can pull the shoulder portion away from your chest, with a bit of a "snap" and it will stay just a bit loose and not nearly so annoying. (Inertia lock?) As it is now, the belt rubs my neck raw and wrinkles my clothes. (Yea, I'm a bigolboy and a knuckle dragger to boot) I've got to find a way to fix it. Is it worn out, needs maintenance or replaced. Somebody help me before I fix it with my Buck knife... Thanks, Paul
Your 89 should have the same shoulder strap as my 87, sorry to say but having one other car years back with your exact same problem, the seat belt tensioner/retractor ( don't know the proper lingo, sorry) has failed and you need a replacement.
I know someone with a pickup truck who hates tight shoulder straps. He pulls his shoulder belt out and bends it at the top slot so it stays out. Or uses a clip.
Yep, the tensioner/retractor's dead. I have a bad one on the passenger front seat of my Exploder, but I hardly have anyone with me so I haven't replaced it yet. Google 'GM obsolete parts' and you should be able to find a new one.
I thought 1989-1990 B-body wagons used the door-mounted shoulder belt (to circumvent the federal passive restraint requirements) - or was that just 1990 cars?
just the 1990 cars had that set up. I never knew about any federal passive restraint requirements for door mounted blets, I just thought it was a GM stupid idea for there full size fleet as the full size Fords never ever had it.
My '89 EW is door post mounted. I'm waiting on Obsolete parts to E mail me. Should be an easy fix. I owned a Subaru with those damn passive neck catchers, I took out the drivers side belt and put in a plain, manual, lap belt. I grew tired of being pulled over for a belt check, sometimes twice in the same day... Finally gave up and sold the car. A few years ago, I was pulled over in my Pro Street '55 Chevy gasser, with full 5 point harness on, (on the hiway) the trooper was of the opinion that the harness did not constitute a seat belt. He wrote me for no seat belt and headlites too far from the ground. 3 hours later, the local justice of the peace disagreed and let me off with a warning. (about what, I'm still not sure) What I was guilty of was driving in Maryland, in a load, funny lookin car, with Floriduh plates. LOL Paul
The federal law didn't specify door-mounted belts, only that passive restraints were required. The feds were pushing the automakers to go with airbags, but GM and other automakers went with the passive and motorized belts as a lower-cost option. I'm not sure if the feds finally closed the loophole or if customer complaints caused it, but at some point airbags completely replaced the passive belts. The door-mounted belts sucked and as noted, GM wasn't the only manufacturer to use them. The Honda CRX two seater also had them, as well as others. I think everyone simply disconnected them at the "emergency release" buckle. Our 1990 Civic four door has the motorized belts, which eventually go bad. The passenger side motor died with the belt in the down position, so I had to manually crank it back up and now we just use the buckle.
