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Old 03-26-2018, 10:33 PM   #1
blee
Doctor Mudgeon
 
Join Date: Oct 2003
Posts: 6,433
Ratchet Refurb

I took delivery of my Grand Prix, ordered to my specs, on my birthday in 1999. Somewhere around that time I also bought a set of Craftsman ratchets and sockets, which have served me well ever since. Over the past few years, however, the ratchets were starting to show their age. The selector switch on the 1/4" stopped staying in place reliably, and the teeth inside the 3/8" wrench seemed pretty worn.

Lo and behold, Craftsman actually made rebuild kits for these wrenches. There have been a few iterations of the ratcheting mechanisms over the years, so you need to do a little homework (just look it up by the model number on the wrench). I think the kits are no longer made, but there are plenty to be found on eBay and such.

The kits include all-new innards -- ratcheting gear, pawl, selector lever, detent spring, ball bearing for the spring, rear cover, and snap ring. The rebuild process is straightforward except for one VERY ANNOYING part -- the ball bearing must be depressed and held in place while the pawl is slipped into position, which must be done after the selector is put in place. Some older rebuild kits came with a tool for that purpose. I tried to make do with a small screwdriver, and I got it on the first try with the 3/8" wrench. I lost both the new and the old ball bearings for the 1/4" wrench, so I went back to eBay and discovered that Snap-On made a tool designed specifically to hold that ball bearing in place. So I bought one of those as well as 10 ball bearings of the appropriate size. I now have eight left and one working 1/4" ratchet.

Anyway, bottom line: the ratchets work like new again. Sure, they're just okay wrenches to begin with, and I have (more than once) wished for one with more teeth, a hinged head, thinner body, and so on, but I'm pretty attached to them. They've held together a bunch of pretty freaking cool cars and I couldn't see the benefits to just buying new ones. Plus, I saved a few bucks.
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