Say it once, say it twice. Make sure the driver’s side restraint system is inside the cab before shutting the door.
It’s no secret the belt’s restraint latch can easily get slammed between the door and door jam. This not only damages the door and jam, but the heavy doors often ruin the safety pull tab (latch guard) on the restraint latch.
There’s a price to pay for being inattentive, and it’s a big one. According to the BEFORE OPERATIONS PMCS checks in TM 9-2320-333-10 (Sep 19), any part of the restraint system that is missing or damaged makes the vehicle NMC. And a new restraint system costs about 260 bucks.
Protect restraint system from door damage
Here’s some good news: if just the safety pull tab gets damaged, you can get the tab separately with NSN 5340-01-648-4908.
By the way, as a quick field-fix, you can use some 550-cord to serve as a temporary pull tab. Make sure you tie a knot in the middle of the cord so it doesn’t wrap around the latch. We showed this same knot on the bottom of Page 13 of PS 753 (Aug 15).
Use 550 cord as a temporary fix until tab can be replaced