I bought a 1995 Ford Escort Wagon 2 months ago and my driver's side seat belt retractor broke today...the wire that seems to operate the retractor is hanging in a loop at the top of the door and the retractor stops moving halfway because of this. I don't know how it happened...it was fine yesterday and seems to have broken in an instant. Does anyone know what I can do to fix it? The previous owner proudly told me that he'd paid $300 to get the motor repaired on the seatbelt mechanism sometime last year...obviously they didn't do a very good job? It's hard to drive around without the seatbelt operating. Any advice would be appreciated.

First thing I'd do is to call around and see if any dealer will repair it under a Ford goodwill safety warranty.

I think many manufacturers will repair these types of things so they don't get bad press when people get hurt due to broken seat belt parts. It's free to ask. Just costs you some time.

Then I'd try to get an idea of how commonly these break. Sometimes you can find that out by walking in to the dealer parts counter and asking the question.

If breakages are pretty rare then I'd go to a wrecker and get one there.