Seat belt wont extend

[digger]

I have a spare e30 front seat belt that is not installed in the car and it appears to be over retracted slightly (it isnt fully retracted) and i cant extend it.

how do you extend it if it has been retracted too far? is there a trick to it

[82eye]

is it installed? i've gotten a couple 'frozen' ones working with a few quick snaps pulling on the belt. came with a few interesting crunchy noises. there's got to be a replacement diy.

[digger]

its not in the car, its a spare that i want to clean and swap out with the one in my car

[digger]

i pulled the cover off (not the torsion spring side) and managed to unwind by moving the arm releasing the spool (if you wind it in too far you cant get enough slack to release it so you need to remove the cover), the trick is that it also needs to be oriented in the same way it is in the car so the gravity mechanism doesnt lock it

[82eye]

nice job.