I have fitted power seats from a 1989 760 into my 1987 740. They work fine but I had to replace the seatbelts too as the buckle is the wrong one. Now, I cannot pull the seatbelt out of the roll, if you see what I mean. Is there a trick?

George
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1987 745 GLE Turbodiesel Intercooler (D24TIC)/1988 745 Turbo Intercooler (B230FT/M46)

I had this problem when installing belts to a 3rd seat. The reel has to be oriented correctly in order to pull out the belt, if not yet installed in the car you can check this by rotating the reel in space and listening to it. Once you get the orientation correct feed an inch or so of belt in the retracting direction , then pull. Much easier with two people.

Took the belt out and released the cover on the mechanism side.(Do not open the "springside" tilt the belt back and forth and you can feel the weight moving around tahat is the mechanism side). Inside the mechanism is the "movable weight" which does lift a little arm when the car is accelerating or slowing down. The arm had "jumped" off it's right place and jammed the weight. Just put the arm in it's right place, it's pritty easy to figure out, and the belt worked fine again. It is really a very simple/smart mechanism and worth while looking into.

When you disassemble the cover there might be different screw's. On the spring side there were two "three winged screw's. Don't touch those. On the mechanism side there are two plastic tensioners. Don't take pliers and try to turn those. There is a hole in the middle. In the hole there's a little, 5 mm long plastic rod that tightens the plastic tensioner. Put a nail in the hole and knock the plastic rod out. Be shure not to loose them, they are small. When they are out you can pry the lid off. Good luck!

One trick is to pull the belt pretty hard and gain a little slack, if you will, from the web tightening up on the roll. Then you have to quickly release the belt, and then pull it loose.

there are two devices (not counting any explosive pretensioners that may be loaded into the B-pillar, don't ask) in the takeup reel that can get messed up or dirty or whatever and cause you grief....a pendulum device that locks the reel on deceleration (or when the reel gets tilted out of plumb because you're taking it out or whatever) and a ratchet device that may not release because the reel is so full that it's causing tension on the ratchet and so it won't release.

Worst case is you'll have to disassemble the B-pillar plastic covers and access the belt reel and trip the pawl to release the reel.