Help...rear Seat Belt Is Locked!

PFF09Sierra · April 17, 2011

2009 GMC Sierra 1500 Ext Cab

So I was installing all my stereo equipment yesterday and I had to take the rear seat out and the seat belt tensioner housing off of the rear floor. I guess from me moving the thing around and flipping it up and down it has activated from what I read is some kind of safety locking mechanism. Now after messing with it for over an hour I have it retracted so far that its all the way against the back wall of the truck and I can't pull any slack out at all. Ive tried pulling hard and easy from all directions and nothing will work. Please help before I lose my mind lol

Thanks!!

Superperv23 · April 17, 2011

Did it still make the ratcheting noise when you were feeding it in? If it was making the ratcheting noise then the child seat feature was activated, you do that by pulling it all the way out. If that is the case it is supposed to release when it gets back to the normal but it should still retract itself anyway. You can try removing it from the floor again and seeing if you can feed a bit more in and get it to release. Had you ever used it before? It is possible it was broken and you just found out now. Worse case scenario it is $65 if you are out of warranty.

PFF09Sierra · April 17, 2011

No its unbolted off the floor now and its retracted up all the way to the back wall of the truck right at the little white plastice piece that re-routes the belt. Its so far retracted from messing with it that its literally 3-4 inches from the wall. If I do get another one will it come with that plastic piece and how do i feed it through the top U shaped bracket? It would be nice if I could take that metal piece off but it looks to be welded in place.

demech23 · April 17, 2011

You'll need to find a way to rebolt it to the floor and then it will release. When you buy the seatbelt new its locked like yours is now, when it gets bolted down the locking mechanism releases...

PFF09Sierra · April 17, 2011

You'll need to find a way to rebolt it to the floor and then it will release. When you buy the seatbelt new its locked like yours is now, when it gets bolted down the locking mechanism releases...

Yea I wish I could, its just too tight. I dont know how they would even get the old one off without cutting it. How do you feed it through the top bracket? There isn't enough room behind the bracket to feed the female end of the buckle through because of the window. In that case how do they even install a new one??

minibike132 · April 18, 2011

Bolting it down has nothing to do with it. The retractor only needs to be in the same position it is when bolted down. The locking mechanism gets activated when the retractor is in a position other then flat how it should be when bolted.

PFF09Sierra · April 21, 2011

Bolting it down has nothing to do with it. The retractor only needs to be in the same position it is when bolted down. The locking mechanism gets activated when the retractor is in a position other then flat how it should be when bolted.

Got It!! I couldn't get it in the flat position because it was retracted all the way to the wall. I couldn't feed it through the bracket on top because the female end is too big to fit through. What I did was I took a small screw driver and poped the female end of the seat belt casing in two. This gave me enough room to slide it through the bracket and then pushed the pins in on the white clip mounted in the wall and poped that out too. Then I had the whole seat belt asembely taken off and was able to pull straight up on the belt like it was bolted to the floor and it came right out. Hope this helps anybody in the future!