Seat Belt attachments

[pharriso]

I managed to find a set of original 1971 Lotus static seat belts to replace the inertia belts in my car. The "new" belts are Kangol magnetic belts in very good condition, however I am confused as to how they are assembled.

Here's a couple of pictures of the buckle, manufacturer's label & usual mountings:

Now what I have managed to figure out is that I am missing one of the bent rod retainers:

Does anyone have a spare, or know where I can buy a replacement?

What really confuses me is the attachment of upper end of the belt that goes to the rear shock tower, instead of the elongated hole as for the lower attachment & the buckle, there is a "horseshoe" type stamping with a special shoulder bolt:

Anyone have anything similar? It looks entirely different to the parts in the parts diagram:

PartsManual_SeatBelts.pdf

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[elj221c]

The 'horseshoe' goes either side of the square 'bolt' in the top right 'exploded' diagram that you attached which bolts into the rear turret top with the special bolt through the square. The other parts to the right of the 'square bolt' in that view would not be required.

The plastic bits allowed the belts to be removed for cleaning etc. without having to remove the seat belt anchor bolts.

Just don't rely on those belts to save you in an accident.......

Especially with regard to the bottom sill mount.

[rgh0]

The horseshoe shaped shackle bolt goes through the hole in the square rod that screws into the extension plate sandwiched between the Lotocone and the the top spring support. This was used on the DHC. The FHC used a bolt screwed into the side of the square rod due to the differing trim behind the seats

cheers
Rohan

[pharriso]

Thanks Roy & Rohan, that has put my mind at rest. Just need to find or make a replacement for that missing part now...

[msd1107]

elj221c,

Those bolts are far stronger than the human body and will withstand G forces greater than what will produce fatal injuries.

I know.

I always kept my belts tightened so there was no slack. One night, a wrong way driver got me almost head on at 35 mph. Because I had the belts so snug, I walked away. With inertia reel belts, the slight delay in engaging the belts would have been fatal.

No race driver would consider inertia reels. They know the importance that the body decelerates at the same rate as the car, not having a delay then having to decelerate at a higher rate.

We should be using four point belts, not three point belts or inertia reel belts. These are a compromise forced by non-compliance of non-safety minded users (the vast majority of the motoring population).

David
1968 36/7988

[Quart Meg Miles]

....
We should be using four point belts, not three point belts or inertia reel belts. These are a compromise forced by non-compliance of non-safety minded users (the vast majority of the motoring population).

David

Couldn't agree more! My Elan came with a full harness which I only changed because of the difficulty adjusting it for different drivers. Now I am the sole driver I think I'll change back to them.

[robertverhey]

Then again, the inability to reach the (properly adjusted!) handbrake in case of brake failure due to full harness....now THAT could be fatal! I wonder which is more statistically likely, a brake failure or a head on collision.....morbid stuff. Tunnel mounted handbrake plus harness is a solution to both

[The Cyclist]

I entirely agree that one should use full harness if possible & be very wary of sill attachment points. I crashed in a full harness [about 50mph into a tyre wall] and walked away. I am also putting in a roll bar which is more about belt attachment & side impact than roll over I must say.

Geoff

[Quart Meg Miles]

Then again, the inability to reach the (properly adjusted!) handbrake in case of brake failure due to full harness

I'd forgotten about that, but at the time I swapped to inertia-reel belts I hadn't got a working handbrake! A grab loop of thick insulated wire round the stem of the handbrake and projecting outside the dashboard would resolve the problem but my experience of brake failure has usually been too busy to think of using the handbrake.

[pharriso]

Now what I have managed to figure out is that I am missing one of the bent rod retainers:

Does anyone have a spare, or know where I can buy a replacement?

Managed to get a "loop" from Sue at FDTS Seatbelts in the UK, very helpful!

[pharriso]

OK, so we're agreed that the horse shoe piece goes around the special bolt from the rear tower, that's

Goes around / through:

SpecialBolt.jpg (20.67 KiB) Viewed 2746 times

The threaded hole through the special bolt is 7/16 UNF, the shoulder on the bolt through the horseshoe piece is quite a bit smaller, were there bushings?

Anyone have a dimension of the width of the head of the special bolt (i.e. thread length) so I can machine up a pair of bushings? My rear cockpit panel is in position so I can't easily get to the anchor point to measure my own.

[lotusfan]

Phil

The head of the special bolt is 5/8 in square.

[pharriso]

Thanks to re-doing my Seat Belts I now know way more about Lotus Elan Seat Belt mountings than I would ever want to know In the hope that it helps somebody else in the future I will document the info I have learned & how I modified my parts so they would fit.

My car came with SAAB Inertia belts, but the keeper end was difficult to access & Sprints never came with inertia belts (2022 edit: Not true Federal Sprints came with Kangol Inertia belts from the factory!!), so I bought some "correct" Kangol static belts from the UK

Firstly, there are in fact at least two (2) styles of "special" bolt that were used to anchor the shoulder strap to the rear turrets.

There is the style depicted in the Parts Book

The hole through is threaded 7/16 UNF (20 TPI) & it's 5/8" between the two sides of the fastener.

The second style is shown in this picture:

The through hole is 1/4", but the fastener head is also narrower at 1/2".
What to do if you have the wider threaded style bolt, but belts with the narrower horseshoe style component?
Well, I made up a pair of inserts (see attached drawing), I then reduced the thickness of the bolt heads from 5/8" to 1/2", loctited the inserts in & then ground the faces to be level.

Components

Assembled

Now to patch up that hole (see DPO bodges thread) & finish my rear partition so I can actually drive the car!!

7_16_SeatBletBolt_Bushing.pdf

Seat Belt Special bolt bushing

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