Interia Reels Repaired, Seatbelts Installed

Since James Paddock declined to sell me a new seatbelt set, saying their insurance carrier would not allow them to send safety equipment to the US, I decided to try to get the belts I have working. After a survey of internet sites dealing with this topic, I came to the conclusion that there is not alot of help out there for repairing inertia reels.

DISCLAIMER: I am not responsible for any failure of YOUR seatbelts if you use my narrative and pictures to effect repairs!

The main problem I was having was that the person who removed them from the car way back when let them retract too far, and this was preventing me from getting enough slack to unreel them.
I removed the small bolt on the backside of the ball housing, which allowed the ratchet plate assembly to rotate around the reel. This made it easier to carefully pry the ball housing off of the ratchet plate assembly. Once this is done, you should be able to move the ratchet away from the sprocket with a screwdriver (there is no spring) and the reel will freewheel to allow you to unroll the belt. The ball sits in a hinged aluminum box within the plastic housing that causes a small locking arm to move up or down depending on where the ball is (normally centered). This arm engages the much heavier ratchet within the plate assembly when the ball is not centered, causing it to lock the reel. The hardest part of the whole operation was getting the ball housing reconnected with the ratchet plate. I had to pry the plastic away from the metal plate a little bit to get the two parts together. You also need to ensure that the plastic end of the reel overlaps the ball housing when re-assembling, or the reel will not turn.
Since the B-post hangers were missing from the driver car, I robbed them from the hulk, cleaned them up, and installed them through the interior B-post trim. Likewise, I used mounting hardware for the reels from the hulk and had to hunt for the mounting holes through the back floor carpet with an awl.

Wound too tightly

tang engaged, reel locked

Tang disengaged, reel unlocked

Put a clamp on to prevent the belt from retracting until installed in the car

The guts

Ball centered, locking arm relaxed (down)

Ball off-center, locking arm engaged (up)

Pull plastic away to get ball housing lip to engage metal plate at top

Plastic reel-end must be over the top of the ball housing

The most interesting discovery of this exercise was that the female receptacles for the seatbelts were mounted wrong in the blue car. Or, if not totally wrong, then at least rotated 90 degrees out! Some previous owner had done an interesting thing with the ashtray console that sits between the front seats. I always thought it looked a little funny, and I finally compared it to the hulk's after trying the seatbelts and finding the geometry all wrong. They had put the thing in 180 degrees out, using the opening for the seatbelt receptacles for the handbrake lever! I rotated the receptacles 90 degrees forward to align them with the opening and used the proper screw to attach the console at the rear. This leaves the handbrake lever uncovered, so I ordered a new red leather gaiter. It also allows the driver to pull the lever all the way up and now it actually works! Another problem solved.
So now my wife is happy to ride in the car, believing that it is safe. Hmmmm.

Creative console setup

Correct console setup