Fitting rear Inertia seatbelts

[michaelodonnell500]

My 500 has front seatbelts but I want to fit rears so I can ferry the kids around ( I know it's not a legal requirement since they weren't fitted during manufacture,  but it's my preference.)

My plan was to use 126 Inertia belts fitted to the rear. My set from eBay arrived today but I forgot that they only work in one orientation! If you mount the belt in any other orientation the belt cannot be pulled.

My suspicion was that there were 2 mechanisms; one to stop the belt in an accident and one to stop the belt if the orientation is incorrect. So I took it apart to have a look.




Arm up - belt locked.




Arm down - belt unlocked




Arm up - belt locked




Arm down - belt unlocked



The green plastic unit holds a ball bearing which only drops into the release position when it's in the right orientation.  Any other angle and the arm stays up and catches on the ratchet ring.

This mechanism is only pressed lightly in place as.you can see below.



With the green part removed the seatbelt can be mounted in any orientation.

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[Gadge]

Hi Micheal I have them in my BIS. I used a full set of red ones from a cinquecento sporting. It took ages to mount them because as you say you have to have the correct orientation or they just lock but luckily I got them just at the right angle to operate. One thing to think about is the length of the belt when retracted as mine was only just short enough to fully retract so that the belt was flat against the seat back. If it's too long it'll just flop loosely on the seat and look untidy. I mounted my reels in the boot but I guess on the 500 you'll have to mount them on the shelf. I also made a plate out of thick metal to mount the reels on to, to act as a better anchor as just bolting them to the body may not be strong enough if the worst was to happen

[michaelodonnell500]

The belt length is something I've not looked into yet because I've not tried to fit the belts. I'll cross that bridge in a week or so.

I'll be using this sort of mounting plate to fit the belts.

 http://www.rimmerbros.co.uk/Item--i-621112

 They need to be welded in place. I won't belt straight on to the body. Reinforcement is needed with seatbelts

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