Safety Belt Buckle Pretensioners, Safety Belt Retractor Pretensioners and Adaptive Load Limiting Safety Belt Retractors - Remote Deployment
WARNING: This page is about a different car, the 2006 Mercury Montego, 2006 Ford Freestyle, and 2006 Ford Five Hundred. However, it is still accessible from the selected car via links, so may be relevant.
WARNING:
- The safety belt pretensioner is a pyrotechnic device. Always wear safety glasses when repairing an air bag equipped vehicle and when handling a safety belt buckle pretensioner or safety belt retractor pretensioner. Never probe a pretensioner electrical connector. Doing so could result in pretensioner or air bag deployment and could result in personal injury.
- Deployment is to be carried out outdoors with all personnel at least 9.14 meters (30 feet) away to make sure of personal safety. Due to the loud report which occurs when the pretensioner or adaptive load limiting retractor is deployed, hearing protection is required.
NOTE:
A typical safety belt buckle and retractor disposal is shown that is similar for all vehicles.
- Make a container to house the safety belt buckle or retractor for deployment.
- Obtain a tire and wheel assembly and an additional 4 tires (without wheels) of the same size.
- With the tire and wheel assembly on the bottom, stack the tires.
- Securely tie all of the tires together.
NOTE: The tires must be of sufficient size to accommodate the safety belt buckle or retractor. - Depower the system. For additional information, refer to SUPPLEMENTAL RESTRAINT SYSTEM (SRS) DEPOWERING AND REPOWERING .
- Remove the safety belt buckle or retractor. For additional information, refer to the appropriate procedure in SAFETY BELT SYSTEM
.
- When deploying a safety belt buckle pretensioner, install a nut and bolt of sufficient length and of the same diameter as was used to retain it to the seat.
- Cut each of the safety belt buckle or retractor wires near the electrical connector that connects to the vehicle wire harness.
- Remove any sheathing (if present) and strip the insulation from the ends of the cut wires.
- Make a jumper harness to deploy the safety belt buckle or retractor.
- Obtain 2 wires (20 gauge minimum) at least 9.14 meters (30 feet) long and strip both ends of each wire.
- At one end of the jumper harness, connect the wires together.
- Using the end of the jumper harness that the wires are not connected together, attach each wire of the jumper harness to each wire of the safety belt buckle or retractor. Use tape or other insulating material to make sure that the leads do not make contact with each other.
- Tip the stack of tires on its side and place the safety belt buckle or retractor inside the center tire, making sure that there are 2 tires beneath the tire containing the safety belt buckle or retractor and 2 tires (including the tire and wheel assembly) above the tire containing the safety belt buckle or retractor.
- Place the tire stack upright, with the wheel on top.
- Remain at least 9.14 meters (30 feet) away from the safety belt buckle or retractor.
- From the end of the jumper harness that is not connected to the safety belt buckle or retractor, disconnect the 2 wires of the jumper harness from each other.
- Deploy the safety belt buckle or retractor by touching the ends of the 2 wires of the jumper harness to the terminals of a 12-volt battery.
- To allow for cooling, wait at least 10 minutes before approaching the deployed safety belt buckle or retractor.
- Dispose of the deployed safety belt buckle or retractor in the same manner as any other part to be scrapped.
NOTE:
If the safety belt buckle or retractor does not have a hard-wired pigtail, it will be necessary to cut the wires and connector(s) from the vehicle wire harness and reconnect to the safety belt buckle or retractor.
NOTE:
Typical safety belt retractor pretensioner shown, other safety belt buckle pretensioners and load limiting retractors similar.
NOTE:
Make sure to maintain the connections to the safety belt buckle or retractor.