Ok think i ve made a bit of an error here, i have just got myself a 4 point sparco harness, and it seems that it attaches over the back seets, thus making the car effectivly a 2 seeter, this is not what i was looking for.

Are there harnesses that dont attach to the rear seats of teh car?, or have i been mistaken all along.

Thing is im sure ive seen other pepoles cars that had harness, and people in back seat.

OW bother, help quick please

 

Catflap,

Hi there...what you prob want is to swap 4 point for 3 point. Hve
fitted 3 point to mine and you can still use BOTH the back seats. The eye bolt that the harness attaches to in the back also holds in
the clip for the seat belt so you dont lose the use of the seatbelt. Although when i did mine (drivers side only) the eyebolt was only long enough to fix 1 of the seatbelt clips in and so I left out the clip for the middle child belt. If you get a longer eyebolt you should have no worries.
anymore questions about fitting..just ask.
If you need pics etc email me and I'll borrow a digital camera..

cheers,
Matt.

 

catflap
Here are the harnesses I fitted in my MY01.



I fitted them together with the original lap and diagonal belts so I could use the OEM belts on the road and the harnesses on the track (or road if I wanted).

I don't know what MYear car you have, fitting the harnesses to a MY01 is not easy but with some thought can be done properly and safely. I fitted clip in belts with eye bolts so they can be fitted over the original belts and both can be used, and the harnesses can be unclipped if necessary.

The main problems are in the rear, because the '01 has a centre lap and diagonal belt. A single rear strap (3 point) does not really work because both available mountings are too offset to either side. A 4 point belt has to be used.

On the centre two mounts you have to bolt through TWO existing belt mounts and the standard eye bolts are not long enough. I managed to obtain some 32mm and 50mm long thread eye bolts - these are very difficult to get hold of. You also have to be very careful with the centre pair because they bottom out on something behind the captive nut and I think it is the petrol tank

They have to be packed out with large washers to ensure they do not bottom out, and also to raise the eye bolt head enough to clear the fabric of the belt where it is turned up at 90 degrees, enough to be able to tighten the eye bolt.

You then have the choice if you want to carry rear seat passengers of either unclip the rear belts from the eye bolts, or just leave the belts clipped in and throw them on the back seat. In either case you have to use the original lap and diagonal belts if carrying rear passengers, you can't carry them with harnesses.

Hope this helps.

 

Yep, seems i have a littyle work ahead of me, and there was me thinking i could just bolt em in.

Thnx for the help

A little dissapointed about the way they have to be fitted, just my ignorence i supose.

 

catflap
Yep, fitting them is not *that* easy. It has to be remembered that apart from being a a fashion item (they look SO good), harnesses are safety equipment and have to be fitted correctly.

In a 5g impact, where your body could weigh a ton or more, it would be pretty late to wish longer eye bolts had been fitted when they had ripped out of the mounts in the impact and you are flying through the windscreen.....not wishing to be morbid, but i'm sure you get my point

 

Totally agree with you, it is serious stuff.

One question springs to mind, i had a look at the affore mentioned eye bolts (as my harness does not have them, it was supplied with normal bolts) How does the eye bolt work?

From the one ive seen on need for speed, it simply looks like a bolt with a ring on the end, what do you attach there? and is there any advantage to simply bolting them into the correct fixing points along with the existing seatbelt, why use eye bolts?

 

catflap
There are two types of belts, bolt in or eye bolt. The end of the belts themselves are fitted with either a bolt in bracket or a spring clip that attaches to the eye bolt.

Bolt in do what they say, fix like OEM belts, and are permanent.

Belts with eye bolts have the advantage that they can be unclipped if you wish just leaving the eye bolts in the car. I don't bother, just leave my harnesses attached to the eye bolts and throw the rear bits on the back seat.

You can see what I mean better here:

http://www.sparcousa.com/harness_competition.asp

One other thing springs to mind, if you have been supplied with bolt in harnesses and want to keep those, chances are the bolts supplied with them will not be long enough if you want to fit them over your existing belts.

Whilst an Impreza uses metric fittings, all seat belt manufacturers still use UNF fittings - the bolts will be 7/16 UNF and if you want to get hold of longer ones this thread is basically obsolete and they can be VERY difficult to source - you will probably need to go to a specialist trade nut and bolt supplier (although Demon Tweeks do sell assorted packs).

Told you it wouldn't be easy......



[Edited by Dave T-S - 12/20/2001 12:51:43 PM]

 

Are yo uin the uk dave?

Th eone si have are vbolt ins, so looke like i need to send them back and get some snap ins (or can you convert them? dont think so) where did you get your snapins?

I would realy like to set my car out with harnesses, but its got to be done safely.

Thx for your help dave

Wish that bloody parcel man would come, im waiting for my sti6 spoler to arive some time today, in transit said the person on the fone, arrrrgggg hurry up....LOL

 

catflap
I know Essex is a world unto itself, but yes, i'm in the UK

The Sparco USA site was probably misleading, it was the first one I came to with some decent pics on.

Re clip in harnesses, Sparco, OMP, Sabelt, Luke, Willans, Momo all do them.

I got mine off a mate - Chuck on the board. Your supplier *should* swop yours if they are unused, got all the packaging/receipt etc.

Give Demon Tweeks a ring on 01978 664466 and ask them to mail both their performance and motorsport catalogues to you. All the above harnesses are displayed in there.

Give me a shout if you want any further info.

 

ooo, well it is deamon tweekeys, i got it form, and in their cat they only show bold in ones, but ill gie em a rin after crimble and sort it out, thnx for the help.

SO i take it wack in some eye bolts (to correct fitting points) this keeps existing belts, and when needed clip in harness/sling on back seet when not used? am i geting warm.
BLOODY PARCEL FORCE tuesday they were supose to deliver, and when i call "its on the van sir"...

 

catflap
You are getting very warm

 

catflap

Scroth used to supply a harness for use with the standard seatbelt; don`t know if they`re still available though.

My advice is to either fit an FIA approved four point item or forget it. I`ve used a few `alternatives` in others cars and they`re not worth it.

Good Luck

 

Are the fia, marked with the `e`, i want them to be road leagle, something about having a e mark and being able to do them uup with one hand?

 

catflap
Depending on the harnesses, if they are E marked but not FIA dated, they are road legal; or if they are FIA dated and the FIA date on them is still valid (I think it is normally five years, mine are valid until 2006) then they are road legal.

Basically, ALL harnesses are road legal, providing they fit the above criteria. None of the WRC cars would be able to go on road sections on the Network Q if they weren't legal.....

As mentioned above, you also have a choice of lap fastening - single clip, like a normal seat belt (which they ONLY do with 2" belts) or aircraft type quick release fastening where you have to clip three bits of the harness in individually (mine are these).

These are normally only available in 3" belts.

 

catflap

Alan at Aldon Automotive (no relation just good service) in Dudley, West Midlands will be able to assist.

Cheers

 

Another thing to bear in mind is that if you are going to fit a four point harness, if the rear mounting points are lower than shoulder height then don't. (Unless you have aftermarket seats designed to take big loads in the vertical seat back/support like Dave has in the picture above).

In any accident it is likely that as the force weights up in the straps, it will simply compress the chair frame, (OEM seats are not designed to consider that type of loading), probably snapping your collar bone/shoulders at the same time!

You need to either pick an aftermarket seat, which can tolerate those loads, or buy a (removable) roll cage which has a high mounting point especially for mounting a 4 point harness onto.


Mike.

 

Blimey, not good

There goes that idea then