Comptech Harness Bar install snafu

See the attached photo. I bolted my (new-to-me) Comptech harness bar down to the rear seat mounts with the included 4x long-ass 14mm bolts. It was definitely securely attached (torqued down to 29ftlbs like a good boy) and the harness bar was standing up just from that, not leaning on anything, but then...

It looks like the bit that's supposed to bolt up to the seatbelt mount is about an inch below and an inch forward of where the actual hole in the b-pillar is. Anyone know what's going on here? Is it possible there were different CT harness bars for coupe vs targa and I've got the wrong one?

It looks like the upper section slides up and down. I see a mounting hole on the vertical shaft in the pic. I have not installed one in many years, but slide the upper cross bar up to match the mounting hole for the seat belt mount hole.

HTH,
LarryB

^^ the tubes are sleeved. loosen all the bolts holding the peices of the bar together and slide them around to align the mounting the hole. Hand tight everything first so you can work out the best plan of attack, i remember it took me a bit of dry fitting to figure how I wanted to do it.

If you plan on putting back in the interior trim i suggest you do it before installing anything. the sub box, for example cant get put in or taken out when the bar is in place. You'll also want to align the B pillar trim, I had to notch mine to be able to use it with the comptech bar. the upper trim price that sits just under the fire wall window CAN be put in and taken out with the harness bar in place, it wont initially look like it but its one flex-able mofo and you just have to worm it in there.

Will

I am leaving the b-pillar plastic off for that "race car" look.

Thanks guys for your insights - that seems a lot more obvious now than it did at 1:30am, believe me.

I think I am also short two bolts - I have four really long bolts that attach to the rear seat mounts on the floor, but the bar did not include any bolts for going into the b-pillar. I assumed that the stock seatbelt bolts could be reused, and they appear to fit, but I wasn't able to get the 14mm hex bit into the tube there to actually tighten it down. What have you guys used?

Shoulda come with 2 allen head bolts for those, you can't even get a thin walled socket in there to reuse the 14's.

Hummm. Definitely didn't come with those. Anyone know where I can get a pair? I could take the OEM bolts to the hardware store and eyeball it, but I'm not sure that's the best idea...

Bring one of the bolts to the hard wear store, they have thread checkers in the hard wear section, it'll be a metric size with a 1.25 fine pitch hold it up to the thingy and see.

I believe they are 7/16-20, per a U.S. regulation. The Cedar Ridge bar uses 1.5" length but I don't know what will work best for yours. You can get anything from McMaster-Carr.

Thanks both for the info. Very helpful.

Is there anyone here who's very familiar with installing/removing a comptech harness, or has the installation guide? I have a removal question.

My NSX came with a harness installed only on the driver's side that I wish to remove but am having a hard time - I don't have access to my NSX body manual due to a move and can't verify how to safely remove the B-pillars without doing anything damaging so I'm taking my time trying to remove the harness with the B-pillar installed. There's a hole in the B-pillar that should let me loosen the bolt in the harness sleeve and pull things out, but it's not going that easily.

I loosened the two rear seat bolts easily enough and removed the two bolts/nuts in the vertical sleeve tube sections to try to loosen up the frame assembly. I backed out the upper harness bolt @the B-pillar to the point where the harness sleeve pulls freely away from the body, except:

- the bolt won't fall out almost as if it's being hung up by a washer that's spinning with the bolt but on the backside of the connection. I can touch the end of the bolt so I know it's free from the body but I can't see what's going on behind the B-pillar since the hole isn't large enough. Also the seat belt pulley is attached to the harness sleeve with the spinning bolt.

- the entire harness assembly is so tightly packaged behind the seat (even with all 3 big bolts and the two harness frame bolts loose), and the seat belt pulley is just big enough behind the B-pillar hole that I can't easily jiggle the harness around enough to draw the upper sleeve & seat belt pulley thru the hole.

So before I loosened the front seat bolts to slide the seat forward and free up some room to jiggle the frame away from the wall, I took a time out and stopped because I didn't want to do anything stupid w/o knowing what to expect, like possibly have something come loose behind the B pillar cover fall loose into the interior cavities.

So, 4 questions

1. Anyone have a comptech harness installation guide that they can scan? Or, know of any online pdf's or guidance? I found none. I did find something similar by a competitor but it's not getting me what I need.

http://www.cedarridgefabrication.com/bp_content/HBI.pdf

2. Anyone recognize exactly what's going on who can offer some guidance?

3. Does anyone know exactly what parts need to stay with the harness and what I'd have to replace? I assume the rear seat frame bolts are special to the harness since they're pretty long, so I'd replace them with #14 & #34 as seen here:
http://www.oemacuraparts.com/auto-p...r-bumper/seat/?trim=nsx&engine=5-speed-manual

And, what should I be looking for up at the upper seat belt pulley that attaches to the frame? Does that bolt stay or is that a special bolt w/the harness? It doesn't look like that bolt is a singly replacable part but is part of the seat belt assy.
http://stores.revolutionparts.com/o...per/seat-belt/?trim=nsx&engine=5-speed-manual

Once I get things out, if I had no other guidance, I'd see if the threaded hole in the pillar was long enough to accept the same bolt w/o bottoming out, and then I'd assume that the bolt stays with the seat belt pulley. Otherwise if it's too long, I'd buy a replacement bolt that's shorter by the amount of the sleeve length.

4. Anyone know of any online guidance for safe B-pillar removal and installation? I have an original OEM B-pillar that'd go back in.

Thanks a lot for any help. I'll attach some photos via tapatalk of what I saw.

humm, taking them in and out is a breeze, there nothing really that complicated about it. Its about as straight forward as it looks. if im understanding what im seeing it looks like the PO kept the retractable seatbelt and probably is sandwiching the upper bracket under the harness bar. (weird) I would guess maybe the thats whats holding you up from pulling it free. if I were you i would.

get a peice of wood put it on the black plastic thing thats around the harness bar and try and tap it out gently. if that dont work try and angle the bolt differently and use your rachet to keep backing the bolt out, something itll 'catch' on a lip or edge and back itself out.

if those dont work,

-remove the front seat(s)
-pop out the behind the seat square cover thing (they just pull straight out since they are held in with clips, no bolts)
-remove the upper fire wall garnish peice, (just under the small window) it just pulls up, its clipped in too, no bolts
-Pull the felt door sill runner gasket up , (not glued down just lifts up)

You will now have acess to the side panel phillips screws that are holding the peice that the harness bar is going through, un screw everything and lift it out of the way too see whats going on. it will make everything really easy. these steps should really only take about 45 seconds to do. theres really no surprises or tricks with the interior of the NSX. I could have mine fully gutted in about 5 min at this point.

if you remove the harness to go back to stock you'll need
-the two rear seatmount bolts. OEM ones are mandated size by the DOT, you can pull them out of any car and they will likely work. make sure they are grade 8 though and gold in color. the ones that are on the harness are too long and should stay with the harness.
- you will also need the 2 driver and passenger side upper seat belt loop bolts, since the other ones that were holding the harness bar in are also too long to reuse. Again these are a standard size and can be pulled out of pretty much any car.

illwillem said:

if im understanding what im seeing it looks like the PO kept the retractable seatbelt and probably is sandwiching the upper bracket under the harness bar. (weird) I would guess maybe the thats whats holding you up from pulling it free.

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Thanks for the reply. I agree, that is exactly what is holding things up. I was curious why you thought that was odd? To me it looks like exactly how it is supposed to be installed? Not picking/doubting, just trying to understand. I'm guessing there are other ways to mount it and this is just one of them?

I found a good photo of the seat belt assy, and I see a washer with tangs (seat belt assy on the right) that looks exactly like what I think is happening - the tanged washer is holding the bolt from falling out. Sorry for the large picture link! Also I can see the size of the triangular pulley piece and how it's much larger than the hole cut into the B-pillar.



For anyone reading who might benefit from this thread, here are a few links for removing some interior pieces to get to the interior B-pillar. The first one has some good pictures and confirmed that I will need to reuse the metal clips on the B-pillar, or buy some new ones.

http://www.nsxprime.com/forum/showthread.php/150218-DIY-B-Pillar-Installation
http://www.nsxprime.com/forum/showthread.php/98145-Help-Removing-the-Exterior-B-pillars
http://www.nsxprime.com/forum/showthread.php/177826-Removing-headliner-DIY

Also Dali's version 3.1 guide has some pictures.
http://www.daliracing.com/v666-5/info/index.cfm?article_catID=9

illwillem said:

theres really no surprises or tricks with the interior of the NSX. I could have mine fully gutted in about 5 min at this point.

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Ha ha, like most things in life, I bet it's that easy after you've done it a few times and know what to do. :smile: I wanted to minimize the risk of breaking or losing anything and learning the hard way. Prime comes thru once again. Thx illwillem.

illwillem said:

- you will also need the 2 driver and passenger side upper seat belt loop bolts, since the other ones that were holding the harness bar in are also too long to reuse. Again these are a standard size and can be pulled out of pretty much any car.

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Those are actually exactly the bolts I am missing. Do you know how much longer the ones that came with the harness are than the stock ones? I know of a shop that specializes in finding weird bolts, so I am going to bring them the stock ones and say "I need this but with an allen head and x longer" - how much is X? I figured if it's cheap enough I'll just get 1/4, 1/2, and 1" longer and try my luck.

Just get them from here http://www.mcmaster.com/#screws/=rnx79l Ill take a look and see if I have them still attached to my stock seatbelts in my attic, if so i can take a quick measurement

I have the stock ones, I'm actually missing the ones that come with the harness bar. This is preventing me from installing it.

Just get them from here http://www.mcmaster.com/#screws/=rnx79l Ill take a look and see if I have them still attached to my stock seatbelts in my attic, if so i can take a quick measurement

Oh, Just use a probe to check the thickness of the bung that they'll go though on the harness bar then add the thread length of the threads from the stock bolts. That'll be the size you need.

bngl3rt said:

Those are actually exactly the bolts I am missing. Do you know how much longer the ones that came with the harness are than the stock ones?

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I believe the original bolts are 1 5/16" long. They have a standard hex head. I just re-installed one yesterday and removed the one supplied with the Comptech harness, which was a 1 1/2" long socket head cap screw. I have a copy of the Comptech installation instructions & template sheets. I can scan & post them here if anyone wants the info?

Yinzer said:

I believe the original bolts are 1 5/16" long. They have a standard hex head. I just re-installed one yesterday and removed the one supplied with the Comptech harness, which was a 1 1/2" long socket head cap screw. I have a copy of the Comptech installation instructions & template sheets. I can scan & post them here if anyone wants the info?

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Please do!! Even CT themselves doesn't have that anymore (I've been emailing with them)

Guys the targa and coupe harness bars are different with SOS/ti Dave/CRF bars. I am not sure on Comptech but the distance between the B pillars is different on the coupe and targa. Make sure you are installing a correct item!

^^ thats good to know

Yeah well I found out the hard way.

bngl3rt said:

Please do!! Even CT themselves doesn't have that anymore (I've been emailing with them)

Click to expand...

Here are the 2 pages of instructions and the 2 templates for cutting the inside B-pillars. Had issues with uploading them to my Prime folder for some reason so I uploaded them via my iPhone. I'll try uploading them to my folder later so they'll be more legible and will update this thread accordingly.

I have all the bolts, I can give bolt lengths & thread sizes/lengths if needed.









Edit: I know these are fuzzy, I'll try to upload them later via a better way. Also I'll work on scanning them to PDFs and ensuring that the template size is transferred correctly for 8.5x11 prints of a pdf. I may add a scale reference to the template pages as reference even though the existing crescent shaped hole for the seat belt should give a good idea of whether a printout is correctly sized before any cutting.