John,

I think the most simple starting point for you is to remove the cover from the driver's side seat belt retractor. There are little plastic tabs that clip on to the metal retraction frame, careful pry/work it out and lift off. (see pictures).


You should see a yellow/black wire with a connector going into the retractor mechanism. Unplug this. Find a piece of scrap wire, stick one end into the connector that came out of the seatbelt retractor. Hold the other end in your hand. Get in the car, start it, and put it into drive. There should be NO SEATBELT WARNING. If there is, plan B and a whole different angle on troubleshooting.

If there is no warning and the car is in drive with you in the seat, stick the loose end of the test wire to a good metal ground. The warning should come on. If this is the case, the system works fine and the retractor is damaged/altered.

Let me know.

:beers:

Hi folks, just wanted to pull a couple of quotes out from prior discussions on the seatbelt buzzer/ warning system.... just in case someone has the same issue in the future.
Thanks Joe I'll try what you suggest and report back.

From Joe (Coppertop):
"First off, this system will only detect whether or not the seat belts have been pulled out of the retractors, not if they are actually latched to the buckles!
The driver's side and passenger side seat belt retractors both have a switch inside of them that ground when the seat belt is retracted (not pulled out). It's this ground that completes that utlimately provides ground side of the circuit.
The driver's side retractor should have a yellow/black wire coming out of it, This leads into the fisher body wiring under the carpet.
The passenger side has a white/black wire coming out of it, this leads up into the seat bottom. If a passenger or something heavy is sitting on the seat, a thin metallic strip presses against another one and causes this ground signal to travel back to the same connection as the driver's yellow/black wire.
This is where it gets tricky, there may be (2) wiring schemes. The one I have shows that the ground signal travels back to the neutral safety switch via a yellow/black wire. All seat belt warning vehicles have an extra set of contacts on the neutral safety switch. When you put the car in "D", this ground is then continued on up to the warning buzzer. The power side to the warning buzzer is tapped off the pink wires that feed the dummy lights or gauges for +12 volts. The warning light is connected off the black wire feeding the buzzer for ground and the pink goes back to another pink wire splice for 12 volts.
So, if you put the car in "D" and the driver's side retractor is still retracted, it's grounded reel sends a ground connection thru the fisher body wiring up to the neutral safety switch, then out thru the extra connectors to both the light and buzzer. BUZZZZZZZZZ. Pull out the seat belt, this "kills" the ground connection and the light/buzzer go off. NOW, if you have bucked up, but your passenger isn't, the system will not turn off because the passenger's retractor is still retracted and this ground is transferred thru the seat sensor (thin switch under the seat cushion) because of the weight of the passenger. Ground continues as described above back to the warning lamp and buzzer. They pull out there retractor, no ground again, system goes off.
Now I've seen some posts mention that the neutral safety switch's extra connectors have pink or pink/black wires meaning GM may have switched the +12 volt side of the circuit thru the safety switch, thus allowing +12 volts to travel to the buzzer and light when the car is in "D", rather then having it interrupt the ground path of the retractors. Regardless, operation is the same.
You should see a small box under the dash (most likely by the turnsignal blinker can)--this is the buzzer module.
Damn, that's a lot of typing, you gonna buy me a beer for it?
Now you know!!
__________________Coppertop


And here's what I wrote:
Hi folks...
Great site, the knowledge is amazing, been reading for a long time, just registered recently.
OK, new guy needing some help. My '72 seat belt buzzer seems to be reversed? It only buzzes when you latch the drivers side belt! My guess is a prior owner got annoyed with it and didn't want to wear the belt, so they reversed something? So when the buckle gets close to the latch is when the buzzer starts. Lap belt, not shoulder, bucket seats, 4 speed. I thought I might be able to just disconnect the buzzer, but don't want to do anything that could drain the battery while not in use?

I want to wear the belt, any ideas?

I'm not very mechanically inclined, but I'm sure trying to learn. john in NC
Link to pic:
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pi...0&id=596334018