I'm getting ready to weld the tabs to my cross bar on my 78 Malibu, so I can mount my seat back brace to the seat. I have a 10 point cage installed. It's my understanding the choice seatbelt arrangement would be a dragster style 'wrap around' harness that doesn't bolt to the cross bar, but simply wraps around it and comes forward through the seat. I have a Jeg's highback pro seat. I was going to use the stock holes for the lap portion of the belt and weld a plate to the floor under the crotch for the crotch strap. I would double check the angles on the stock holes for the lap belts to make sure they were the proper angles according to my NHRA rulebook, of course. As usual, though, the rulebook is really vauge. I'm not too clear on the best way to mount the shoulder straps to the crossbar. If you have suggestions and pics it would really help me out. Thanks!

You are correct about the shoulder harness', they should wrap around the cage cross bar (which should be 1-3" below your shoulders). The anti-sub belt should be 6" from the seat edge I beleive and the stock floor mounts will work fine for the lap belt unless you feel ambitious and want to weld tabs to the cage for the lap belts.

Just wondering Dennis, is that no less than 3" or no more than 3" below your shoulders?

Any more than 3" below the shoulders and upon impact the belts will force you down collapsing your spine instead holding you back in the seat.

Yeah, that's what I was getting at. The mount should be no more than 3" below. I knew that's what you meant, you just got it backwards in your first reply.
I know someone who took out their back seat and attached them to the rear floor pan - makes me wince every time I think about it.

The crossbar is at the appropriate angle. What's the best way to attach the harness to the crossbar? Wrap around, H style with tabs welded to the crossbar, Y style with a tab welded to the crossbar? I would think a wrap around would be far stronger than a couple of tabs welded to the bar.

Wrap arounds put the least amount of stress on the harness itself as the load is spread out around the tubing vs. being concentrated at the eye with a tab.

That's what I was assuming, but how do they wrap around and attach to the harness again? I was checking out some Simpson H style's online, but they are obviously the type that attach to tabs on the crossbar. There are several different types out there. Any suggestions?

http://webpages.charter.net/seanthomas/sternum.jpg

Your best bet is to weld tabs to the crossbar for the shoulder harness mounts. This will give you more adjustment and be much easier to adjust. If using an aftermarket seat, the crotch strap must be mounted behind an imaginary line drawn through your chest to the floor.
I would not mount the lap belts to the roll cage though. NHRA is not real specific on this in the rule book and can be open to interpretation by various track inspectors. The rule book does however state that the lap belts "be mounted to the frame, crossmember or reinforced mounting, . . . . .". The lap belts must be anchored at locations equal to the width of the driver, so this pretty much eliminates them being mounted to the roll cage.

Sean, the harness should come with instructions for wrapping them to the cage. You basically remove the tabs from the strap and wrap it around the tube then back through the adjustment strap by floding in a V then through the adjuster. My G-force and Diest have always included instructions for doing this (with pics).

The main advantage is cost, when you send them back for re-certificaton they will just retag them and return them vs. using the tabs they will have to re-web the belts; basically paying for new belts. With the tab all the belts wear occurs in that very small area where it wraps throught the tab....also the place where it break if the unexpected ever occured.

Y style with a tab welded to the crossbar?
I think I remember reading recently that Y style harnesses are no longer approved by the NHRA. You may want to verify that if you were thinking of going this route.

Sean, check out my website, i have very detailed photos of exactly what i used to attach my seat belts.
I fabricated my own system.

If you decide to take my route i'll offer a few suggestions that would be an improvement even over what i have.

Sean, check out my website, i have very detailed photos of exactly what i used to attach my seat belts.
I fabricated my own system.

If you decide to take my route i'll offer a few suggestions that would be an improvement even over what i have.


I did check out your website last night when you posted your last race results. I'm thinking I want to go with a wrap around setup. As stated earlier, this is the place where I would think the most wear would occur, and a 3" wide strap would have more strength than a strap attached to a little bolt.

If I'm all wet here, someone shout at me. I'll be ordering the harness in about a month and want to make sure I get it straight the first time.