Seat belt retractor with reduced spooling

A seat belt retractor comprising:

• a housing;
• a spool rotatably mounted in said housing;
• seat belt webbing wrapped about said spool in the form of a roll of webbing and adapted to be extended therefrom and retracted thereon;
• locking means in said housing actuatable to prevent rotation of said spool;
• clamp means movably disposed in said housing, said clamp means having at least one clamp surface adapted to contact said roll of webbing on said spool to limit withdrawal of said webbing from said spool, said clamp means being movable towards said roll of webbing, said webbing extending from said roll of webbing on said spool about said clamp means and then out of said housing, forces acting on said webbing when said locking means is actuated resulting in movement of said clamp means towards said roll of webbing whereby said clamp surface comes into contact with said roll of webbing;
• and means for maintaining said clamp surface of said clamp means in close proximity to said roll of webbing on said spool regardless of the amount of webbing extended from said spool, said maintaining means comprising at least one contact member extending from said clamp surface and biased toward said roll of webbing, said contact member being in contact with said roll of webbing.