Question on seatbelt swapping.

[Mustang5L5]

I finally scored some black seatbelts today. I did my black interior conversion 4 years ago and have had the red seatbelts in ever since. For some reason, my parts car didn't have any seatbelts in it.


I got them out of a 1990. Now from what I understand, this is the only year that will directly swap into an 87-89 without any mods. The 91-93 seatbelts will require slight mods correct??


One other question. They worked when they were in the car, but after i took them out, they retracted all the way and won't come out at all. Is there any trick to getting them out? Do i have to remove one of the plastic tabs on the side and release a lock or something when I install them??

 

[Mustang5L5]

I guess i alwys ask the difficult questions

 

[Fett]

There is a "prong" that helps you mount the seatbelts in the proper place. If you look at either set, there should be a metal tab that stick out the back of them where the seatbelt retractor mounts to the body of the car. They are there so you align the retractor in a specific way. The tabs are going to be different in the two sets of retractors, so the black ones will mount slightly skewed.


You need to measure and cut a slot into the body of the car so the new seatbelts mount in the correct way. You really need to look at the car they came out of to see where the slot is on that car, so you can cut a slot in the same exact position in yours. You need to be VERY careful when doing this because if you don't get the seatbelt mounted exactly how it is supposed to be, the belt will not lock into place during an accident.

I put 91+ front belts in my 88, and had a hell of a time getting them to sit correctly. Now they are in and work perfectly, but it took a lot of measuring and planning.

If you look at the retractors, there is a wheel and ball system that is used to make them lock up during an accident, and you will notice that as you move the retractor around sometimes it will lock and sometimes it will not. That should also help you position it correctly.

That is hard to explain, I hope I helped.

 

[Mustang5L5]

SO that's for the 91+ belts correct? I have belt from a 1990, so i shouldn't need to do that right?

I looked on ebay and did see the difference between the 1990 belts and the 91-93 belts. The prong on the 91+ is located further away from the belt body. Unfortunately i can't find any pics of 87-89 belts to compare too and I can't check out the ones in my car til after this nor'easter passes through


Oh and i solved the problem about the belts not extending. They need to be at the correct angle as they get mounted in the car to extend

 

[Fett]

Yea, that is what I was talking about....the angle they are at when you mount them. That is where the tab comes into play, it fits into a slot on the body so it is mounted at the correct angle. Make sure when you mount it, that the angle the new one sits is the same as the old one....or you will need to cut a new slot in the body so the new one sits at the correct angle.

 

[steadfastcrew]

i was havin the same dilemma.. but im plannin on grabbin a pair of 5pt harness for the heck of it..

 

[Mustang5L5]

Well after checking a few other Mustang boards, i found out for sure that the ONLY year seatbelts that will directly swap in are the 79-83 black belts and belts from a 1990 only.

91-93 and SN95 belts require cutting a slot like mentioned above.

I lucked out since my set came from a 1990