Today I returned a Crapsman 3/8" ratchet handle for exchange under Sears's lifetime warranty. It slipped when either tightening or loosening. They swapped it without question, but instead of going to the display rack and taking down a new one, the salesman reached under the counter and handed me one with a tag on it that said "refurbished". Has anyone else had this happen? The replacement seems to be ok, but time (and use) will tell.
John
I am a locksmith and I had recently re-keyed a sears store. In the back room they had a bunch of ratchets and bins full of repair kits for them. It seems that the handle itself seldom fails before the guts.
It seems as though the grease in the ratcheting mechanism dries out after awhile, and the mechanism no longer works as it should. Carefully disassembling the head, and greasing it with "bicycle grease" makes the ratchet new again. This happened to three of my Craftsman ratchets, and I fixed all three with about 15 minutes of work.
I've returned many over the years. Usually the refurb's are fine, but once in a while...
BTW, Snap On even rebuilds most ratchet's... usually yours and right in the truck.
Erik
sounds like a cost cutting thing they are doing??? i remember years ago when you brought in a bad ratchet they would just give you a small plastic bag with the contents of the ratches gear and clip to hold it in?? at the time i argued with them as i did not know how to take them apart, but since then i have been able to work on them and found no problem with this.... just hang on to the one they gave you and in time you can go to another sears store that does not have any rebuilts in stock and you get a new one.. i had a nut driver with a female fitting
1/4 drive on the back to put a 1/4 in. ratchet in.. the thing broke, its plastic handle came apart.. well in around 1970 i tried to get another one and the only thing they had to exchange it with was one without the female fitting in the handle... i refused and just kept the tool in the tool box and about two years ago i brought it back to sears and found that they now have it but its better with steel all the way though the handle and now this one will not break.....
I was handed the "repair kit" when I brought my busted 3/8" ratchet handle in about 25 years ago. My handle was the pre-pushbutton kind and I didn't realize the repair kit had the pushbutton release. I just upgraded my ratchet handle by drilling a hole in the right place, and I'm using it to this day..
Jeff
Speaking of ratchets, I recently got a 1/4 drive made by T&E Tools that is friction driven. Reversing is done by removing socket and pushing drive through to the other side of the head. I don't know the minimum degrees of movement needed to achieve purchase, but it is not much. And you don't have the degree spacing of the teeth, since there are none. Once the initial slack is taken up, any movement is gainful. Seems to work quite well. About $20 US.
michael
-- release the fish from the net to reply
While I am by no means a fan of Sears / Crapsman, I have to admit they are good on the warranty of handtools. On the other hand, I had an old Snap-On 1/4" drive ratchet. I carried it to the Snap-on man who used to come around our hanger every month or so, and he looked at it and went aand got me another replacement ratchet. Bit different in style handle but still a ratchet that worked. This ratchet did not last any time until it would slip when it had any kind of force applied to it. So I promptly took it back. This time there was another Snap on man, and he looked at it, and refused to accept it to warranty it. He showed me the letter "E" that was stamped on the handle, and siad that the ratchet was an exchange tool, and was no longer warranted. Say whay.no longer warranted.$30 some bucks for a ratchet and it did not last any time at all................even other attempts to exchage it at other snap on dealers produced the same results. I still have this ratchet, thrown in a box of junk, as a long time reminder sometimes Snap On and their prices simply are not worth it.
About 2 months ago I was replacing the engine in my sons 240SX. During the course of this job, my son was trying to remove the bolts on the flywheel. He was using my KMC flex head 3/8" ratchet with offset handle. In the process he used a cheater pipe over the handle to get leverage, and he busted the internals on the ratchet. (He is kind of stupid and did not know any better or was just to lazy to get a pull handle) ANyhow, if I could just find a new KMC flex head offset handle ratchet again I certainly would be a happy camaper. I bought that thing many many many years ago whern I was on a trip and needed a ratchet to make a repair, and did not want to spend big bucks for a top name. K mart was right there so a quick trip inside to ther tools section and I found it was the only ratchet they had in stock. I was not overly fond of the flex head or offset handle, but it was a ratchet, and the price was right for a emergency repair. (about $5.00) I grew to like that ratchet and it turned out to be my favorite ratchet above all other ratchets. Now its broke. It has marked on the handle KMC Lifetime Warranty, but there is no K marts in this area anymore, and a email to their offices says it is no longer offered...A real bummer. That was a el cheapo tool that was worth much more and its loss is still felt!
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"John Holbrook" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@corp.supernews.com:
Depends on how busy they are at the store and who you approach. I have had both a refurbish exchange and had my ratchet rebuilt as I watched. Granted the one I watched was a 1/2 inch drive...
When I worked there about 8 years ago. I had seen quite a few interesting returns. Like a 1/2 drive breaker bar that was "S" shaped. Tossed in the barrel, no questions asked, just a wow or two.
The tool barrel was dealt with in an interesting(to me) way. The 55 gal barrel was filled about 3/4 full, 300 Lbs or so. Sealed and shipped off. The barrel was never opened again, just tossed into a pulverizer of some sort. Which is why there is a snout locked onto the barrel when it is on the sales floor. They had a problem of propane bottles ending up in the barrel. Which caused a few exciting days at the barrel processing facility. Before the snout, we (ahem, I) had to transfer all the tools from one barrel to another to look for propane bottles.
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