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I've not been able to find this info in the Parts Catalog, Chassis Service Manual, Assembly Guide, nor here on CO. My search for 1968 seat belts here returned a lot of posts/threads, but none I saw addressed the question.
I made the mistake of not documenting which retractor came from which side of the car, and they've been on the shelf for about three years. Now, after disassembling to install new covers, I'm re-installing and see that one retractor has a black spring cover, and the other has a white spring cover. The spring covers and the winding direction of the belt onto the spool are the only differences I can see.
Does anybody here know which retractor lives on which side of the car? Does black go on the driver's side? Or vice-versa?
Could someone with a '68 take a look and let me know? Any input is appreciated.
As near as I could tell, the white one is on the driver side and the black one is on the passenger side...at least that's the way it is on my '68 Lansing 4-4-2 convertible. The belts unroll from the outside.
I don't know if color is an indicator or not, though. I was looking at my '69 Fremont 4-4-2 convertible and one of the plastic ends is red.
I doubt the plastic cover makes any difference. As Randy stated above, the belts unroll from the outside, so you need to determine which direction the mounting flange (with the big bolt hole) goes - pointing forward or pointing backwards.
I wonder if it varied by assembly plant? I don't have a 1968 with these installed from the factory. But I do have a 1967 and a 1969 that I believe haven't been messed with. They both are Fremont cars and they both are on the inside closer to the seat.
And my Fremont '69 4-4-2 convertible also unrolls from the inside. I marked these when I took them off, both for the '68 and the '69, so I know they went back in the same way they came out.
Thanks a bunch, guys! I really appreciate your help. Mine is a Lansing car. 2Blu442, I wonder if you are correct in that a given factory did it whatever way they saw fit. Or maybe '67s and '69s were different? Fun71, the mounting flange goes rearward so that the belt is canted forward. With this in mind, the white is on the driver's side - Randy, you win!
In researching this on CO and 442bro.com, I saw a lot of posts about guys hurting their fingers trying to wind the spring and hold it in place as they re-attached the cap. I did it the easy way - I placed the cap/spring onto the shaft, ensuring the spring tab was inserting into the shaft's slot. Then I gently rotated the cap 6 times and popped the three pins of the cap back into their holes on the bracket. Viola! Interesting point, when I removed the caps, I counted 3 turns on one, and 3.5 on the other in unwinding the spring before removal. The rewind action had been kind of anemic before I started. After completion, the rewind action is firm and quick.
September 30th, 2017, 11:18 AM
Thanks!
- I placed the cap/spring onto the shaft, ensuring the spring tab was inserting into the shaft's slot. Then I gently rotated the cap 6 times and popped the three pins of the cap back into their holes on the bracket. Viola! Interesting point, when I removed the caps, I counted 3 turns on one, and 3.5 on the other in unwinding the spring before removal. The rewind action had been kind of anemic before I started. After completion, the rewind action is firm and quick.
