gbas

Hi - I recently inhereted my grandfather's 1970 Delta 88. I can't figure out what is going on with the seat belts though.

The front has 3 belts: Shoulder and lap for driver, should and lap for passenger, and lap for middle bench seat. None of the belts for the driver or passenger will click together for a locked connection. They slide together but then I can pull them apart easily. The middle belt DOES lock together. I noticed that the middle belt has a wider hole in the middle of the male end than all of the other belts. It's the only male end with the wider hole out of all of the belts (front and back).

All of the belts in the back seat work. They have the smaller hole on the male end like the front driver and passenger. I also noticed the female buckle is different than the front. It is the original GM belt but just a little smaller than the front buckles.

My uncle has had this car for the past 30 years and has not replaced any of the belts. Could something just be worn out on the front belts? Has anyone had this problem before?

Oldsguy

I am not sure what is going on but it doesn't seem correct that a '70 Delta should have had shoulder belts. I am sure someone on the site can help you work it out though. Welcome to CO.

2blu442

Can you post some pictures? I was thinking the 1970 was the same size, but it seems to me like one year (1969?) did have different sizes for the waist belt and shoulder strap. At least on the Cutlass/442 but I don't have much experience on the full sized. John

Bluevista

My Vista is a '71 and the the outboard seat positions have a smaller lap belt buckle and male floor retractor end, the middle lap belt has a wide buckle and end like the shoulder belts.
A '70 Delta should have front shoulder belts, all cars (except convertibles) had to have them starting on 1/1/68.

Jamesbo

Welcome aboard

As Blue pointed out, Sounds like you've got the lap belt into the shoulder belts or vis versa. The have different size buckles

Oldsguy

Excellent. My reasoning was in error then and the more I thought about it the more my statement didn't sound right. I recalled that my '69 Delta had shoulder belts but being two piece unlike the present ones, I never used them.

Cameo White

We need to know if your car has deluxe belts or not. I am not sure for the full size, but in the F-85 line, you could get regular or deluxe belts. The deluxe belts have the chrome covers, the regular were plastic. The deluxe belts have different sized receptors and buckles for the lap versus the shoulder belts (if it is the same as my 69). The smaller buckles are for the lap belts, the larger for the shoulders. Make sure you are trying to buckle them up to the correct receptor, and see if that works.

gbas

Thanks everyone for the responses. Cameo, based on what you described, I must have the regular belts. I'll try to upload pictures as soon as I can. I did find this picture on the web that looks exactly like my front buckles. The back buckles are smaller but are the same colors (black with blue button).

Jamesbo

gbas,

That's the standard buckle, but there are still two sizes.

gbas

I've taken some pictures of my belts. Hopefully these are clear.

Here is a picture of the "front buckle". The front seat has 3 buckles and all of them are the same
front buckle.jpg

The "front driver" belt has a smaller hole than the front middle belt. The driver and passenger belts are the same and don't click together.
front driver.jpg

The "front middle" is the only belt/buckle that locks together. You can see the hole is wider on the belt.
front middle.jpg

All belts in the back seat do lock together. The "back belt" has the same small hole as the front but the "back buckle" is different than the front.
back belt.jpg
back buckle.jpg

The front buckle is a little larger than the back and rounder in shape. The back buckles are a little smaller/flatter and more of a square shape. I don't know if that comes through in the pictures.

Does anyone know if it was common that the buckles differed like this? What would be my best bet to have working front belts? Change out the female end to buckles like the back? I don't know if I'd find many belts like the "middle front" male end.

Would I be able to open up a front buckle to see what's going on (a little scared to mess with that though)?

I should add that the shoulder belts have the same size hole (smaller) as all but the middle belt. So the middle belt is the only one that is different in size.

Thanks again for your responses!

Jamesbo

Are you sure the "middle" belts don't mate with the shoulder belts?

Bluevista

Sounds like you're missing 2 buckle ends in the front, should be five with shoulder harnesses?
Did you dig down in the seat and see if they aren't buried in there??
Weird that the rear has the stamped steel wrinkle finish covers and the fronts are plastic? Are the date code labels on the male end belt part all correct for that year?
Does the shoulder harness end connect to any buckle in front?
Does it have the shoulder harnesses above the side windows?
I have a black set of those front type from my Vista, I'll see what the male ends look like.
The small buckle for the outside belts that goes to the floor retractor end is a lot smaller with the Deluxe buckle belts
The small buckle ends aren't adjustable either. Seems like the Vista had all the same size plastic buckles? Maybe the male ends are different so you don't connect the adjustable buckle into the retractor male end?

Edit: I checked and was mistaken. My old belts are the metal type and the same size, same as the back ones in the pic, all the same.
All the male ends are the same size and the same hole as yours and latch together, all of the belts are adjustable
The retractor isn't the type that locks up in a crash so the belts adjust. I think the small buckle with no belt adjustment is just for that locking type retractor, it is in the Vista. It looks like you don't have those in any case.
Sure nobody messed with the belts?

gbas

Blue, you might have cracked the "code"!

I do have 5 buckle ends in total. All are the same in the front (bigger plastic buckle). I just checked the tags stiched onto the belts and maybe someone put 69 belts on it at some point??

All of the male ends in the front (except for the middle/wider hole) have the code 25B70 on the tags. This includes the shoulder harness (pinned up above the windows).

The female ends had the following on the tags. By Drive Side, I mean the ones that connect to the floor on the driver's side; same for Pass Side:
Drive side: 8F69, 8F69, 5F69
Pass side: 8F69, 5F69, 5F69

The middle male end was a 5F69 on the passenger side. I can't tell exactly which it should go to but would assume it'd go to a female 5F69 on the driver side.

All of the back belts (male and female) had 24B70 on them. Assuming the "70" indicates the model year (and the "25" indicates front; "24" indicates back?), I can only assume that someone changed out the female ends at some point with 1969 ends (or should I check to see if Oldsmobile has a recall on this ) ...which would explain why the buckles are different between front and back. Blue, that would make sense with what you just posted about yours.

So maybe I need to find 25B70 female ends for the front?