A tip for anyone replacing front seatbelts, in bugs anyway.
I replaced the front belts in my 69 bug today, did away with the old frayed belts and the 'combo' central belt latch in the bug, and put in 2 new lap / sash belts with 'stalk' latches.
The new seatbelts come with nice shiny hardware, that is, bolts, washers, etc.
Put it all together, bolted it all in, tried the belts out....sweeeet. Went for a drive later.....grinding on gearchange, noises from the back....what the hell has happened to the car? It was a shocker.
Sat down to work it out......the only thing I had done to the car was the belts.....so compared the old bolts to the new ones and...presto, the newer bolts are slightly longer than the old ones. Now I don't know exactly what is in the tunnel between the seats but I know there would be a gear changey thing, etc...and obviously the longer bolts made contact with said gear changey thing and made hassles. I changed he bolts back to the older short ones and all was fine.....seatbelts good, car drove like it should have.
In short.....if you are changing your seatbelts for new ones, check the bolt lengths, you may have to resort to the older ones over the new shiny ones.
phantom Wolfsburg Wizard
598 posts · joined Mar 2004 ·
