I have a 97 Ford Ranger and the belt buckle got inserted into the latch in reverse. Now, I can’t get it out. I can depress the release button, but it won’t come out. I’ve tried rocking the buckle, but that doesn’t help. I’ve tried inserting a flat piece of metal into the latch to release it, but I can’t get it in there far enough.
What I’m looking for is an easy “trick” to get this thing to release.
Upon looking at the buckle more, it looks like the fact that its reversed has nothing to do with it. Looking in the other buckles, I can see some random debris in there, which makes me think that something is jamming the buckle.
I wonder if spraying some silicon lubricant into the belt buckle might free things up. A couple of weeks ago, I was using my leaf blower. I turned it off and then the switch wouldn’t budge so I couldn’t turn it back on. I was up on my first story roof trying to blow out the eaves troughs on the second story–I had tubes attached to the blower. I was desperate to get the job finished and decided it was time for a new blower anyway. I went over to the nearest big box store, but they didn’t have a leaf blower that would accept my extension tubes nor did the store have extension tubes for any of their leaf blowers.
I came home and decided to take the leaf blower apart. I found a lever that operated a slide switch. It was the switch that wouldn’t move. I sprayed contact cleaner into the switch, let it soak for 30 seconds and was able to move the switch. I worked the switch back and forth, reassembled the blower and it works perfectly. In your case, anything with a little lubricant–electrical contact spray, silicon spray, etc. might be just enough to make the metal parts in the buckle slippery so that they can be pulled apart.
I had this same issue on a Ranger. Luckily I was not held in by the belt when it got stuck. There is no way to insert the male into the female incorrectly. I got a pair of vice grips, put a nut onto the area that needed to be depressed, and pressed it with the vice grips. It still took a little work to jiggle it free. As it turned out, there was some crud inside the female which I then removed with compressed air. It never happened again.as long as I owned it.
