Hi, the stuck seat belt on my '99 Ram 2500 is driving me crazy. It's been on the driver's side but now I have the problem on the passenger side too. At first it would free up as soon as I started the truck and began driving, so that I could pull it out and put it on. Now it won't get unstuck at all. I popped out the plastic seat belt slot cover on both the driver's and passenger's side and I see the belt is coiled up in a sloppy, tangled manner. Maybe that's the reason? Tonight I drove around while yanking on the belt and a couple of times it freed up enough to pull it out a few inches, then it locked up again. When I got back I removed the nut holding on the bottom of the belt so I could get some more slack, thinking that would do the trick. But I think I made it worse, now that I just allowed more belt to retract inside the mechamism and add to the mess. I've tried some of the other tricks I saw on this forum, like checking the door switch, and poking a butter knife in there, to no avail.
Thanks for any help!

 

Buzzworm, look underneath the middle front seat. Mounted to the frame is a black box. I don't really know what's in the box but I do know if that box is not conected to each seat or have power to it, the seat belts will not work. I found this out while installing Katz Skins leather seat covers on my truck. Damndest thing I ever saw. We had the seats out of the truck and could not get the seatbelts to pull out. I noticed that there was a plug hanging off each bucket seat so I took a 12v converter and applied power and the seatbelts worked perfect! When we re-installed the seats I noticed that if the black box was tilted or upside down the seatbelts didn't work. Since I have modified my center seat to hold a woofer I ended up velcrowing the black box down to the carpet. I think this box is used to make sure the seatbelts don't let loose if the truck rolls over. However, the seatbelts should work fine even if the truck is turned off. Your statement about it working when driving around has me thinking that the box is loose and getting tilted or that the plugs have come undone. I never checked to see if that box was fused but it could be. Anyway, something to check out. Good luck. Jeff.

 

Thanks a lot, jram99m, that was exactly it! The box had come loose and was sitting upside down on the floor. I think it had previously released the belt when I was driving if I went over a bump just right or something, then it must've rolled all the way over and stopped working completely. I had called the dealer earlier and he mentioned that I need to bring in the truck and pay for them to troubleshoot the rollover detection system, so that must be it. But the dealer wouldn't offer any info to help me fix it myself. Once I turned the box upright (and reseated the connector for good measure) the selt belt was released. This info saved me a huge hassle and expense, so thanks again!

 

That's cool buzzworm. Glad it was something simple and that I'd had that experience. Stay with the forum long enough and you will find that just about every problem you'll come across with your dodge, someone on here has "been there, done that" I'ts great reading also. Make sure in your spare time you go back to the begining and read some of the stuff on here. I was able to fix problems I didn't even know I had before I foundDodge Forum. Jeff.