seat belt retractor

My drivers side seat belt does not retract. I was wondering if anyone has fixed this problem and can offer some insight.

Usually it has a twist within the side panel. If not ... you will have to pull side panel off just to get to the mounting spot. It's near the bottom .

This is a problem on mine and many other VXes. It just needs a little help sometimes. Make sure you don't close the door on it.

If your belt won't retract, check the windings on the side of the retractor mechanism.

I fixed my retractors a couple years back. I have black painted door panels and the belt buckle kept chipping the paint when getting stuck in the door from weak return spring. Even if I was careful, my passenger wouldn't know and slam the door on the buckle. It was driving me nuts and I was going to buy entirely new seat belts.

Fortunately, I found that I could remove the retractor and tighten the windings. The windings get loose from years of use but tightening them gives the belt some spring again. I don't remember the task to be that difficult, just a bit tedious. Also, you can find matching seat belts in certain year Troopers.

Since I did this, the seat belts retract enough to clear the door before I shut it.

Are the windings like some sort of spring that you can just make smaller/tighten or is there a screw or something that controls the tightness of the windings?

I jsut odered a set off of ebay, replaced both sides, but you lose the adjuster at the top for seatbelt height.