Hi all,

I want to tighten up the seat belt retractors on my '98 Tercel -- I
don't want to spend money and buy new ones as that's an old car and
all I want is for them to pull harder on the belt (they get actually
worst in the winter when it's -30 celcius).

I've managed to remove one and somewhat figure out how it works; it
has two plastic covers, one on each side, with each the dreaded "DO
NOT REMOVE" mention written on them. The right cover seems to protect
the clutch mechanism (the mechanism that makes it block if you pull
too hard or if the unit is not straight up). It also protects the min/
max limits of the actual mechanism.

I'm pretty sure the left cover hides the spring that would need to be
tightened up. The questions is: when I remove that cover, does the
spring pop up flying around like crazy? has anyone done this before?

I know the retractor is not normally a serviceable part (that's what
the Toyota deal told me anyways), but I'm just wondering if there's
anything I can do about it.

Thanks,
Jonathan