Passenger seat belt buckle removal on a 70/30 split seat.

2001 Access Cab with the 70/30 front bench seat.

I searched the FSM and it came up with 237 mentions of seatbelt, but all of it about pretensioner rather than the female piece I'm interested in.

There is a U-shaped area between center seat and passenger seat where the bolt is I need to get to. It's covered with plastic housing that has 2 screws keeping it in place. The rear screw is accessible but the second screw can not be accessed due to the narrow area between the seats.

It appears to be a single unit, making it impossible to reach. I was hoping there was another FSM out there with a section about removing this buckle. If anyone's done it or has a copy of factory instructions for removal/replacement, I'd appreciate it.

 

I don't have the answer for you, but 'buckle' is often the word for the belting system, IIRC.

That said, you typically need to remove the side or back plastics to get to things like that. Like remove the red circled fastener (and any others) then pop off this entire piece outlined in blue, I would expect at least.

And if you need to just swap guts, see the video below, around the 4m30s mark.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RPzkQwNlBBQ​

 

I wish I could just remove that rear screw and pull the cover off, but the cover has another screw holding it in place.
I've drawn on the picture to illustrate it. The red area is the recessed area showing how deep you need to go before reaching the screw. The screw itself is drawn in yellow.
This is within that U-shaped area and feels impossible to get at.

Thank you for the video. If/when I pull it, it will help me to give it a shot and try a rebuild before ordering a new one.

 

Yeah, without removing enough trim, I don't see how you could get to it. I would expect that trim piece would, after removing the red circled fastener, slide toward you, maybe have a couple of clips holding it in.

Sucks, I don't have a bench to look at for reference. I don't see anything else jumping out at me. There has to be something, either trim, fold-down center console, something ... you can remove to gain access.

 

I did come across a diagram and instructions for doing this on another vehicle, a Rav4 if I recall correctly.
Believe it or not, they actually want you to dismantle the entire seat, separating the back, the padding, everything.

DISASSEMBLY
1. REMOVE HEADREST
2. REMOVE ARMREST ASSEMBLY (a) Remove the screw and RH seat cushion cover. (b) Remove the 4 bolts and armrest assembly.
3. REMOVE RECLINING ADJUSTER RELEASE HANDLE
4. REMOVE OUTER SHIELD Remove the screw and outer shield.
5. REMOVE INNER SHIELD Remove the screw and inner shield.
6. REMOVE SEATBACK ASSEMBLY (a) Remove the hog rings. (b) Remove the 4 bolts and seatback assembly.
7. REMOVE SEATBACK COVER (a) Remove the headrest supports. (b) Remove the seatback frame from the seatback cover with pad. (c) Remove the hog rings and seatback cover from the seatback pad.
8. REMOVE SEAT CUSHION ASSEMBLY Remove the 4 bolts and seat cushion assembly.
9. REMOVE SEAT CUSHION COVER (a) Remove the hog rings and seat cushion frame from the seat cushion cover with pad. (b) Remove the hog rings and seat cushion cover from the seat cushion pad.
10. REMOVE RECLINING CONNECTING PIPE Remove the reclining connecting pipe from the seat tracks.
11. REMOVE INSIDE INNER SHIELD Remove the screw and inside inner shield.
12. REMOVE INSIDE OUTER SHIELD Remove the screw and inside outer shield.
13. REMOVE CABLE
14. REMOVE SEAT ADJUSTER Remove the 2 bolts and seat adjuster.
15. REMOVE FRONT SEAT INNER BELT Unfasten the bolt and remove the front seat inner belt


Yeah, we're not doing all that. I'm going to try and take the unit apart, as shown in the video posted above(thanks again), and if I order a new unit I'll take it apart and just attach it to the existing belt that way. Either that, or I'll end up taking a dremel to that plastic housing around the screw and do my best to put back as clean as possible.

Thank you for reading and trying to help. To those of you with a split seat like this, I hope you never have to replace the receptacle on yours.