CL500 front seatbelt replacement

[Leigh_C]

Hi Craig,
Is that the rivets that can be bent / undone or definitely need drilling? Are they ordinary rivets?

Many thanks!

Leigh

 

[Craiglxviii]

I found a seatbelt reel from Dronsfields. There is a cross brace that needs to be drilled out and removed to access the reel, and either re-rivetted or bolted back into place to reassemble the seat.

 

[Craiglxviii]

Hi Craig,
Is that the rivets that can be bent / undone or definitely need drilling? Are they ordinary rivets?

Many thanks!

Leigh

Leigh,

They’re pop rivets so can easily be drilled out.

 

[Leigh_C]

Ah ok - thanks Craig!

I can do pop rivets!!

 

[nopslider]

Here it is

Hi, I'm just about to tackle this job myself. Have you got access to the instructions on how to remove the lower lining referenced in the PDF - AR91.10-P-1200N?

Thanks

 

[Craiglxviii]

Hi, I'm just about to tackle this job myself. Have you got access to the instructions on how to remove the lower lining referenced in the PDF - AR91.10-P-1200N?

Thanks

Can you put up an image? I can’t open the PDF on my phone.

 

[nopslider]

 

[Leigh_C]

So to cut a long story short and with a long trip coming up next week, I decided to get around to this.

Seat back is off, 8 rivets for both cross bars drilled out, headrest out, seat belt unbolted from bottom of seat…
How on earth do you get the seat belt reeel out of that housing please as the housing is welded in place and the seat belt reel is too big to get past the housing from the back… do you have to remove the upright seat cushion (if so how please) or am I missing something…?
The Merc instructions are not very good in my opinion. Undo the bolt, remove seatbelt tensioner… yep…!!

@Craigixviii / @LostKiwi / anyone… can you help at all please?


Many thanks.
Leigh

 

[Craiglxviii]

So to cut a long story short and with a long trip coming up next week, I decided to get around to this.

Seat back is off, 8 rivets for both cross bars drilled out, headrest out, seat belt unbolted from bottom of seat…
How on earth do you get the seat belt reeel out of that housing please as the housing is welded in place and the seat belt reel is too big to get past the housing from the back… do you have to remove the upright seat cushion (if so how please) or am I missing something…?
The Merc instructions are not very good in my opinion. Undo the bolt, remove seatbelt tensioner… yep…!!

@Craigixviii / @LostKiwi / anyone… can you help at all please?


Many thanks.
Leigh

A lot of jiggling!!! It does come out but I recall it took me ages, many utterances of “Oh come on you sod” etc and giving up and walking away. You have to twist & turn the reel assembly just right.

 

[Blobcat]

A lot of jiggling!!! It does come out but I recall it took me ages, many utterances of “Oh come on you sod” etc and giving up and walking away. You have to twist & turn the reel assembly just right.

@Craiglxviii thats you that is…

 

[Leigh_C]

A lot of jiggling!!! It does come out but I recall it took me ages, many utterances of “Oh come on you sod” etc and giving up and walking away. You have to twist & turn the reel assembly just right.

Many thanks!! I did it as you say, after a lot of technical terms and grunting (and sweating in the heat - still, that helped the diet I’m sure!!
I unhooked all of the leather seat covering from the tabs apart from the very top tabs which are part of the dreaded housing to give a little extra movement and then with one hand I pushed the ‘cushion’ part forward and with the other wriggled the seat belt reel down at the corner of the housing… once it started to appear I got more determined!!
Put the replacement back the same way obviously. Phew!
Interesting how the Merc instructions only show one crossmember - my seats have two and inbetween is the ‘air block’ and pipes / connectors etc, presumably for the massage seats (it’s a CL55K with lots of options!). Consequently I had to drill out 8 rivets and then be very careful with all that pipe work not to damage anything while it was all ‘floating’ in mid air while I removed the belt reel.
Seat is all back together and now I have a passenger seat belt that retracts properly every time the passenger moves or leans forward!

 

[Naraic]

Many thanks!! I did it as you say, after a lot of technical terms and grunting (and sweating in the heat - still, that helped the diet I’m sure!!
I unhooked all of the leather seat covering from the tabs apart from the very top tabs which are part of the dreaded housing to give a little extra movement and then with one hand I pushed the ‘cushion’ part forward and with the other wriggled the seat belt reel down at the corner of the housing… once it started to appear I got more determined!!
Put the replacement back the same way obviously. Phew!
Interesting how the Merc instructions only show one crossmember - my seats have two and inbetween is the ‘air block’ and pipes / connectors etc, presumably for the massage seats (it’s a CL55K with lots of options!). Consequently I had to drill out 8 rivets and then be very careful with all that pipe work not to damage anything while it was all ‘floating’ in mid air while I removed the belt reel.
Seat is all back together and now I have a passenger seat belt that retracts properly every time the passenger moves or leans forward!

For future reference, what size rivets did you use when replacing?

 

[Craiglxviii]

For future reference, what size rivets did you use when replacing?

I used M6 bolts from memory!!!

 

[Leigh_C]

For future reference, what size rivets did you use when replacing?

For the top cross member I used 4.8 x 18mm as there’s the extra plate that also has the tab that the leather seat covering pulls over.
For the lower cross member I use 4.8 x 12mm. All that seems to do is hold up the bottom of the ‘block’ that has all of the air lines going into it so I didn’t go mad and no extra plate of course like the top cross member.