Chris Adams
Well-known member
- Joined
- Oct 21, 2007
- Messages
- 2,117
I’ve had a couple threads on SL710 ratchets and this is a follow up.
This is long and will only be interesting to anyone who has/wants to buy, a cheap older Snap-On ratchet on E-bay or wherever and may want to rebuild it themselves;
Why rebuild a ratchet that has a ‘lifetime warranty’?
Because if you buy it on e-bay, pawn shop, brother in law, whatever, the local Snap-On guy may or may not warranty it.
Plus, if you don’t work in a shop you have to contact/locate a Snap-On guy. Then chase him down. Then talk him into fixing it.
Then hope he has the parts, he probably won’t. Then track him down for the rebuilt part maybe a month later.
The cost of chasing him down exceeds the cost of the parts anyway.
Another big problem, most warranty requests are greeted with “There’s nothing wrong with it” or “It’s supposed to be like that”.
I got both on this ratchet.
So after a LOT of help and encouragement from forum members, I was able to order the correct rebuild kit for my ratchet.
Snap-On assistance on line, while prompt and very nice, gave me the wrong part number to order. Wrong, in the sense it was different, more teeth. It would have worked.
I didn’t need to use it, because wrenchr (thanks again) on our forum found me the right number.
Ordering the kit (two actually, I’m rebuilding another ratchet as well) was very easy.
Snap-On has a good website and excellent follow up links to track your parts.
Prices were great.
10.00 for a complete rebuild kit for each ratchet. Plus tax, no shipping.
At that price chasing down a Snap-On truck was not justifiable.
And wasting a drivers time on a warranty job is also not justifiable since again, this was purchased used.
Besides, I like to do my own work.
The kit comes with the new ‘bottle cap’ dust cover from the back, a new bushing that presses into the back holding the dust cover in place and giving the gear drive a smooth strong place to rotate within.
Taking the old Snap-On down is two screws.
Then, to press the dust cover and bushing out I used a 14 MM long impact socket and my vice. I could have driven it out with a seal/bushing tool but the vice with socket was easier.
I padded the vice jaws with wood as it took too much force to get by with my rubber pads.
The bushing has little teeth on it around the edges.
There wasn’t enough wear on the old bushing to need to replace it, but the dust cover looked so bad I replaced them both anyway.
The pin for the reverse selector you drift out with a small pin punch.
I don’t care for that design, because you can not just pull the lever for cleaning the spring and ball assembly.
After pulling the pawl and ball bearing/spring assembly I gave the stripped ratchet a thorough cleaning. There was a lot of crud down inside the spring hole. 4 Q-tips and cleaning solvent were needed.
The replacement check ball was not a ball, but a hemisphere on a shaft that pops into the tapered coil spring. This helps keep the unit together during installation.
This is a definite improvement over the original ball and spring.
Putting the pawl in is the hardest part, of course. The spring wants to shoot the ball replacement piece across the room, and there is even less room in the SL710 than most ratchets.
After trying with screwdrivers, thin metal blades, etc. I figured it out. You put the pawl in UPSIDE DOWN.
Lots of room on the top, goes right in with the spring held down.
Then using a thin strong screwdriver you depress the ball and spring down into the hole and then rotate the pawl around till it is right.
It takes all of a minute and no more picking up the end piece from the floor.
When putting the pawl in place, be sure you turn it the right way.
One end has a big square hole, the other a small round hole.
The big square goes in first. This is obvious but if you are having problems with the check ball you can turn the pawl around in your hand and might start putting it in backwards. I didn’t but I could see that it would be easy. Then you would have to pull it out do it right.
Putting the reverse lever in was a chore. The square hole is smaller than the cast metal square end on the lever. They want it in there tight.
Be sure you get it in the right way. You could put it in one flat out and you then couldn’t adjust it.
Drop the gear in and be sure the lever is pointing the right way because it is a ‘put in once’ part.
Using wooden pads on my vice I pressed the lever in.
Warning; you have to be careful as the small round end of the shaft can catch on a lip in the pawl and not go through the small hole correctly.
Then it would snap or distort inside the pawl.
I pushed it part way with the vice, then using a small brass dead blow hammer I tapped on the pawl till the pin stuck out.
I then used a small round seal installer (you could use a small socket) to tap the pawl down till the tip on the lever was sticking out about an 1/8 of an inch.
Then I peened it till it was round and flat, securing the lever in the pawl.
A little oil and drop in the gear. Put the new screws in place and
TA DA, it’s done.
The ratchet feels like new, as it should with all moving parts replaced.
The original problem with this ratchet was the square-drive ball would not release the sockets without great force.
Cleaning it, oiling it, soaking it in solvent for three days, pushing the ball in deep with a press, all did not help.
The new square drive check ball works perfectly. Holds the socket securely but you can pull it off with no major work.
Just a note;
The pawl for the 24 tooth gear has only one catch tooth on each side.
The 32 pawl for the 32 gear has two catch teeth on each side. Testing with the 32 gear from my other SL710 I found the ratchet will work with the ‘wrong’ pawl, but the single tooth one looks sturdier.
This is long and will only be interesting to anyone who has/wants to buy, a cheap older Snap-On ratchet on E-bay or wherever and may want to rebuild it themselves;
Why rebuild a ratchet that has a ‘lifetime warranty’?
Because if you buy it on e-bay, pawn shop, brother in law, whatever, the local Snap-On guy may or may not warranty it.
Plus, if you don’t work in a shop you have to contact/locate a Snap-On guy. Then chase him down. Then talk him into fixing it.
Then hope he has the parts, he probably won’t. Then track him down for the rebuilt part maybe a month later.
The cost of chasing him down exceeds the cost of the parts anyway.
Another big problem, most warranty requests are greeted with “There’s nothing wrong with it” or “It’s supposed to be like that”.
I got both on this ratchet.
So after a LOT of help and encouragement from forum members, I was able to order the correct rebuild kit for my ratchet.
Snap-On assistance on line, while prompt and very nice, gave me the wrong part number to order. Wrong, in the sense it was different, more teeth. It would have worked.
I didn’t need to use it, because wrenchr (thanks again) on our forum found me the right number.
Ordering the kit (two actually, I’m rebuilding another ratchet as well) was very easy.
Snap-On has a good website and excellent follow up links to track your parts.
Prices were great.
10.00 for a complete rebuild kit for each ratchet. Plus tax, no shipping.
At that price chasing down a Snap-On truck was not justifiable.
And wasting a drivers time on a warranty job is also not justifiable since again, this was purchased used.
Besides, I like to do my own work.
The kit comes with the new ‘bottle cap’ dust cover from the back, a new bushing that presses into the back holding the dust cover in place and giving the gear drive a smooth strong place to rotate within.
Taking the old Snap-On down is two screws.
Then, to press the dust cover and bushing out I used a 14 MM long impact socket and my vice. I could have driven it out with a seal/bushing tool but the vice with socket was easier.
I padded the vice jaws with wood as it took too much force to get by with my rubber pads.
The bushing has little teeth on it around the edges.
There wasn’t enough wear on the old bushing to need to replace it, but the dust cover looked so bad I replaced them both anyway.
The pin for the reverse selector you drift out with a small pin punch.
I don’t care for that design, because you can not just pull the lever for cleaning the spring and ball assembly.
After pulling the pawl and ball bearing/spring assembly I gave the stripped ratchet a thorough cleaning. There was a lot of crud down inside the spring hole. 4 Q-tips and cleaning solvent were needed.
The replacement check ball was not a ball, but a hemisphere on a shaft that pops into the tapered coil spring. This helps keep the unit together during installation.
This is a definite improvement over the original ball and spring.
Putting the pawl in is the hardest part, of course. The spring wants to shoot the ball replacement piece across the room, and there is even less room in the SL710 than most ratchets.
After trying with screwdrivers, thin metal blades, etc. I figured it out. You put the pawl in UPSIDE DOWN.
Lots of room on the top, goes right in with the spring held down.
Then using a thin strong screwdriver you depress the ball and spring down into the hole and then rotate the pawl around till it is right.
It takes all of a minute and no more picking up the end piece from the floor.
When putting the pawl in place, be sure you turn it the right way.
One end has a big square hole, the other a small round hole.
The big square goes in first. This is obvious but if you are having problems with the check ball you can turn the pawl around in your hand and might start putting it in backwards. I didn’t but I could see that it would be easy. Then you would have to pull it out do it right.
Putting the reverse lever in was a chore. The square hole is smaller than the cast metal square end on the lever. They want it in there tight.
Be sure you get it in the right way. You could put it in one flat out and you then couldn’t adjust it.
Drop the gear in and be sure the lever is pointing the right way because it is a ‘put in once’ part.
Using wooden pads on my vice I pressed the lever in.
Warning; you have to be careful as the small round end of the shaft can catch on a lip in the pawl and not go through the small hole correctly.
Then it would snap or distort inside the pawl.
I pushed it part way with the vice, then using a small brass dead blow hammer I tapped on the pawl till the pin stuck out.
I then used a small round seal installer (you could use a small socket) to tap the pawl down till the tip on the lever was sticking out about an 1/8 of an inch.
Then I peened it till it was round and flat, securing the lever in the pawl.
A little oil and drop in the gear. Put the new screws in place and
TA DA, it’s done.
The ratchet feels like new, as it should with all moving parts replaced.
The original problem with this ratchet was the square-drive ball would not release the sockets without great force.
Cleaning it, oiling it, soaking it in solvent for three days, pushing the ball in deep with a press, all did not help.
The new square drive check ball works perfectly. Holds the socket securely but you can pull it off with no major work.
Just a note;
The pawl for the 24 tooth gear has only one catch tooth on each side.
The 32 pawl for the 32 gear has two catch teeth on each side. Testing with the 32 gear from my other SL710 I found the ratchet will work with the ‘wrong’ pawl, but the single tooth one looks sturdier.
