So, 3 out of five seat belts don't work in the '88:
-PS rear -- aparently it locked up on the previous owner and they decided to just cut the belt instead of replace it
-PS front -- won't retract and stay tight unless the door is opened
-DS front -- wont unspool... its stuck in the spooled position

The nice part is that I have what amounts to a full set of belts that I got last year from a LeSabreT member so I've got spares to swap in.... its just that I'ver never swapped fronts before. How do the lines disconnect? Are they adjustable? Is the belt locked because the ground buses are still messed up (cut open from being corroded apart... still haven't soldered them back yet)?

I'm going to refer to my body service manual while I'm at it too...

Oh, neat bonus is that I found a date stamped on the inner plastic cover of the DS side door: september 1987... must have been one of the early '88s to come out with the Vin C.

Edit: Ok, I've been fiddling with them for a while now and I think I've found the culprit. There is a plate on the bottom of the retractor side of the belt that is forced up to stop the gears of the retractor by a metal weight that swings. When the weight swings from side to side (from the car moving in a given direction quickly when stopping, accelerating, or being hit in a wreck) it pushes this plate up into the gears. The problem with my belts (all of them, even the replacement set) is that this plate is always pushed up against the plate...

So I don't know what to do now other than to try to get yet another set of belts and hope that they are good. I really hate driving without a working belt but I don't have a choice as the starter on my '89 T is dead. The good thing is that I inherited some gas wells a while back and I've just gotten a check for some decent coin that I'm going to use to buy some parts...

I had a prob with my ds belt too. First would'nt come out at times. Then i got it all out but would'nt retract. I removed it to replace it, 2 quaters and a dime fell out and it retracted. New belts are availabe for about $80 each, ouch.