I was told it was the reversing lever that was the subject of the lawsuit. I
had a 3/8" Craftsman ratchet made before that time that had the lever hanging
down that I liked so well. Something wore out inside of it while I was working
as a mechanic about '84-'85, and when I took it back to Sears they were happy
to replace it, but all their ratchets now had a dial on the back that could be
used to turn the socket without moving the handle (occasionally useful) and a
sort of three pointed star in the middle of the dial to reverse direction. It
works, but I don't like it near as well as the lever.
A few years ago I wore out that ratchet also and took it back to Sears for
another replacement. To my delight, I found that they were back to the old
style using a lever for direction. The release button was back also, and the
spinner dial was gone. Go figure.
Now if my 1/2" spinner dial type would just wear out so I could replace it....
Looks like it ain't going to happen though. I put about 700 ft/lbs on it the
other day (with a four foot piece of pipe) to break loose a wheel hub nut, and
it didn't hurt it at all.
Just my version of the hearsay.
Mike Frerichs
"William M. Gilroy" wrote:
> This is from my memory and I was a child of the 70's. I think it was more
> like 15 or 20 years ago and the suit was for the feature on the ratchet
> wrenches where you pushed the button on the back of the ratchet head and it
> unloaded the springs under the little balls that held the socket on the
> wrench. This allowed the socket to slide on and off real easily. This
> is from memory and not the gospel, and if I am wrong someone will correct
> me.
>
> Later,
>
> Bill Gilroy
|