Replacing belt guard on a Marathon

[wendibird22]

Do I need to replace the belt guard/shield on my Marathon if it's broken? I can't really tell exactly what it does.

Dumby me broke one of the plastic clips trying to remove it in order to put the harness back together. I was adjusting the shoulder height and the harness yolk dropped to the bottom (while the seat was installed) and the only way that I could retrieve it was to remove the belt guard. Well the book doesn't say how to go about doing that so in my attempt to pull it out a plastic tab/clip broke so now it's loose and won't reattach. Wasn't sure if this was something I could do without of it there's some safety factor it provides.

[Joolsplus2]

Belt Guard: Definition: Black plastic curved thing in the bottom of my carseat junk box.

Nah, you don't need it, just don't tangle the seatbelt in it if you install it with the seatbelt

[pastrygirl]

That thing is the hardest thing to take off and put back on!! I heard a trick, though, after wrestling with it for an hour -- if you loosen the straps all the way, you'll be able to access the splitter plate without moving that darned black plastic thing.

[wendibird22]

Thanks Jools! I knew you'd know!

[wendibird22]

That thing is the hardest thing to take off and put back on!! I heard a trick, though, after wrestling with it for an hour -- if you loosen the straps all the way, you'll be able to access the splitter plate without moving that darned black plastic thing.

My problem was that I removed both of the straps from the plate and the weight of the plate made if fall to the bottom of the seat and out of the guard. There was no way to thread the plate piece back up through w/out removing it. Britax has such great features otherwise, you'd think this piece of plastic would be easier to remove without busting it!