1/4 New Britian ratchet guts wanted

How about providing more information . . . maybe a model number, a general description of the ratchet, and maybe some idea of when it was built. New Britain's hand tool division was in business for a long time and produced several different ratchet designs. The most recent, produced from the 1960's through the end of production in 1984 or so, featured a round head with a 45-tooth sliding "single-pawl" mechanism; the next earlier model was also a round head, but it had more teeth (if I recall correctly, 60 teeth) and used a double-ended oscillating pawl. Earlier models were oval-head models.

In the later years the same ratchet mechanisms were used in the higher-grade New Britain and Blackhawk branded ratchets AND in the lower-priced Husky and Sparta branded ratchets AND in the ratchets that New Britain Hand Tool built for JC Penney under the Penncraft brand . . . and probably other private-labelled tools too. So if you can't find new parts, there's a fair chance that you can find a donor ratchet at a garage sale or flea market.

By the way, have you tried taking your ratchet apart and cleaning it thoroughly? A build-up of dirt and grease is a sure way to make a ratchet malfunction. I've "repaired" dozens of non-working ratchets with nothing more than a toothbrush, cleaning solvent and the tools needed to disassemble and reassemble the ratchet.

John

The detent balls of standard (non-quick-release) are almost always simply staked into their holes. The toolmaker drills the hole a bit over the ball diameter, puts a short spring and the ball into the hole, and then pushes the ball into the hole while peening around the hole just enough to make the mouth of the hole too small for the ball to pass through.

If you still have the original ball and spring, or can find suitable substitutes, you may be able to repair your ratchet yourself. A C-clamp or even a pair of Vise-Grip pliers can be used to hold the ball in place, being sure that the clamp covers only a bit more than half of the hole so that you have room for a centerpunch. Make a divot around the outside of the hole to squeeze just a bit of the hole mouth closed, then move the clamp and make another centerpunch divot. Usually 3 or 4 divots spaced around the hole will hold the ball in, but you need to fill in between those 3 or 4 punchmarks to have a lasting repair.

If you have a lathe, you can make a circular punch that will more-closely duplicate the factory peening. The punch itself wants to have a bit of a recess in the end so that the ball itself can be used to locate the punch, but the recess needs to be shallow enough that the ball is held inside the hole when the drive-tang hole is peened.

I've fitted retainer plates to hold retainer balls in large-drive-size tools, but I don't think that approach is practical for a 1/4 inch drive.

Another thought: Are you by any chance a regular Snap-On customer or do you friends with a Snap-On dealer? I don't know if they still do, but Snap-On dealers used to have a set of tool-repair tools, including the circular peening punches, so that they could repair Snap-On tools that lost the retainer balls. Often, a "friendly" Snap-On dealer would replace lost retainer balls on other-brand tools for his customers as a good-will gesture.

And one more: Do you know any Mac dealer that's been in business for years and years? I've heard reports that Mac used to source some of their smaller round-head ratchets from New Britain, and even that some Mac dealers sold Blackhawk tools as an economy line. An old-timer Mac dealer may have a dust collector repair kit that'll fit your ratchet.

I'll look forward to hearing what you find out about your ratchet mechanism, and maybe we can come up with a solution to your problem.

I've already looked through my stuff, and unfortunately I can't come up with a 1/4-inch drive New Britain ratchet mechanism of any sort.

John

I'm a mechanics' tool junkie. Worked as a gas jockey back in 1971 and the boss took me under his wing and showed me how to do tune-ups, letting me use his tools. I started wondering why some of his otherwise-identical tools had different brand names . . . such as Blackhawk and New Britain ratchets, Indestro and Duro-Chrome sockets, and Proto and P&C combination wrenches. Once I took the ratchets apart and realized that they had the same mechanism design and that the New Britain ratchet worked just as well with the Blackhawk "innerds" as it did with its own, I was hooked.

John