Harness Mounting

Jason Mauldin · **Posted:** Sun Apr 04, 2004 9:43 am

In the mirage there is a brace under the floor of the car where the submarine belt needs to be mounted.

I don't want to drill a hole through this brace and would prefer to offset the belt to one side. Is this going to be problem if the belt is to one side by about 2 inches?

Scott Johnson · **Posted:** Sun Apr 04, 2004 10:50 am

IMHO (and that really should be all caps), it will work fine offset a bit, not ideal, but it will work, but I'll defer to the experts.

That reason (and that alone) is why I'm running 6 point harnesses. I had teh *exact* same problem, but with the 6 points I can have them on either side of the subframe.

Scott

Chuck Frank · **Posted:** Sun Apr 04, 2004 7:13 pm

I am not an expert either, but how much affect it will have is relative to how far rearward it's mounted. The farther back, the less affect, just do to angularity. Why do you not want to drill a hole? If you are worried about leaking, just smear a dollop of silicone sealer on the floor pan before snugging up the nut. If you remove the harness later. stick a plastic plug in the hole. If you have a longitudinal boxed brace running under the center of the seat, you may have to offset the mounting, or drill a large enough hole to put a piece of pipe the same height as the box on the bolt and a large heavy steel reinforcing plate top and bottom so's not to crush the box. Any way you mount it, be sure to put a plate top and bottom, don't just bolt it thru the floor pan.

Jason Mauldin · **Posted:** Sun Apr 04, 2004 8:12 pm

I don't mind drilling a hole through the floorboard. I just don't want to drill through the brace that is directly under the spot that I need to put the hole in order for it to be centered. The brace looks important and I don't want to risk weakening it.

Scott Johnson · **Posted:** Sun Apr 04, 2004 11:09 pm

Chuck Frank wrote:

I am not an expert either, but how much affect it will have is relative to how far rearward it's mounted. The farther back, the less affect, just do to angularity. Why do you not want to drill a hole?

How far rearward *is* dictated by the rules, too far back and it helps kill you rather than save you. The 5/6th point needs to be pulling down in a plane roughly parallel to the shoulder straps.

Scott

Chuck Frank · **Posted:** Mon Apr 05, 2004 3:39 pm

I wouldn't mount it any way but the right location (centered, directly under a line down the front of the torso) if for track use like Scott says. I highly doubt you'd weaken any bracing that was important by drilling a 7/16" hole thru it. If it concerns you that much, put a 4" sq 1/8" steel reinforcing plate top and bottom. I'd really be more concerned about the belt mount pulling out of the floor pan than I would about weakening the brace by mounting thru it, so mounting thru the brace would be prefered to me.

Diane Hall · **Posted:** Mon Apr 05, 2004 4:52 pm

Mine's a bit off center towards the tranny tunnel in the race car for the same reason. I have a race seat though, so maybe that makes a difference.

Adam Ligon · **Posted:** Mon Apr 05, 2004 10:18 pm

I just mounted a 5pt in the ole jetta yesterday, took all of 15mins. And I didin't have to drill a single hole. Have I said before that VW's rock :lol:

Mark Vitacco · **Posted:** Wed Apr 07, 2004 2:43 pm

I would prefer if such specific questions be directed to the
tech director or my self on the track events team. OUr contact info
is on the web site. The forum is for general club discussions on various
topics. It was never indended to be a single point of contact for club
officials though like anyone else, we read and perticipate when we have the time & desire.

Very specific instrictions with very specific diagrams have been
publised on our tech guide as well on the SFI web site.

You want this mounted in line with the spine and not offset.
It would be ideal to
have a structural member to anchor it to as appears to be the
case on your car. You do not want it offset on direction or the
other, we have alreay failed several cars for this.

Cheers
Mark V

Mark Vitacco · **Posted:** Wed Apr 07, 2004 2:59 pm

been reading some of the replies, most of you are well up on this
subject. Franks comments are correct in that reinforcement backing
plates are required on all bulkhead mounting. If you are going
through a hollow monoque, you can reinforce the bulk head with
a spacer and pass the bold through the spacer both locked in place
by the backing plates, this will not cause the bulhead to crush.

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Harness Mounting

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