After 23 years of owning this car it never got to me to test the seat belts till now and I totally forgot which type of seat belts mechanism does the Camaro have.

Is it the mechanic lock like most of chevy got these days?
or the type that get triggered (fired) only when needed ( I don't know what they call this type)

but I can say that if I manually snap the belt quickly it does not get locked - I am sure of that.

on my 2017 trailblazer for example it get locked if you pull the belt quickly and you can feel the belt stopped and locked.

Any ideas ?

 

According to the factory service manual, the harness retractor should lock under the following conditions:

- The rapid extraction of the seat belt webbing from the retractor.

- The speed of the vehicle changes abruptly.

- The direction of the vehicle changes abruptly.

- The vehicle is on a steep upgrade or downgrade.

The retractor locks mechanically, no electronics involved. There is a pendulum that causes a locking bar to engage a cog on the spool of the retractor mechanism.

Free download of the 96 factory service manual - virtually identical to 97:

https://www.mediafire.com/?40mfgeoe4ctti

 

Thank you very much for the information.

So my primitive test is not necessary correct since there is more than one element combined to it as per the manual.

Hope no one get into such a situation.

Thanks

 

Abdulrahman,

If you pull out a yard (meter) of the belt and hold it, then PUNCH down on the center of that belt, it should lock instantly. A quick pull may not be enough to get the retractor to lock. As stated above, a serious tilt to the car should also lock the belt, but you would need a steep ramp to get that to happen.
.

 

Stopping hard is a good test. That's exactly when you want the harness to lock.