Have you ever broken a 3/8 ratchet?

[Griff93]

That's a good break there Ubluzin!

I bought this one brand new off the truck and never used a cheater on it. It did hold up to around 4 years of daily use. I think I only had to have one kit in the whole time. I broke an SK 1/4 in last night on loosening 1/4-20 bolt. It just locked up though.

 

[Wakefield]

Pin/bolt might have survived on that one-maybe too much tension for the ear to survive? Bolt does not wear its hole elongated like a pin can?
I think those ears are the weak spot on the most common type of breaker bars which also double as flex handles. I saw something on Wright Tool site called a bull bar. Looks like a breaker bar without the flex feature which would probably be more reliable if you don't need the flex feature. I think that one on Wright Tool was in 3/4 drive. Might be like a big "T" handle.

 

[caper]

Most Bull Bars or sliding t bars as they're more commonly known tend to bend alot easier than their breaker bar siblings.I've bent quite a few 3/4" sliding t handles.So many that I got rid of all but my Snap on version.The handle on that one interchanges with my power handle head and ratchet head and has never bent.

 

[Sterff]

The only ratchet I ever broke was the Craftsman 3/8" ratchet with the black hard handle. The pawl cracked into 3 pieces.

 

[Wakefield]

Shotgunfatcat has a picture of a heavy duty bar on the thread"which is the stronger breaker bar design" it looks kind of like the Snapon removable head on the handle set-up which can also take a sliding t-handle attachment but his in the picture has a knurled handle end. I think his picture was of stuff for working on earthmoving equipment.
At about $89. I would hope the Wright bullbar wouldn't bend easy,I see it says that it weighs 5 lbs. 7 ounces and is 24" long. The picture shows the head at one end of the handle,I don't know if it can slide down to the middle.
Looking at a Snapon Tool truck man's 1/2 drive 24" long breaker bar(beautiful chrome!) it would simply give me more confidence if those ears had about twice as much cross section area/mass as they do. They do have more mass than the wings on a 1/2" drive extension,those extensions have 2 joints that look something like a flex head joint on a breaker bar but the force is in a different direction.(?) I would think that a universal joint can't take nearly as much torque as the rest of a 1/2" drive extension/setup even if you keep the universal straight.
Shotgunfatcat's is flex on the head(not handle) the Wright looks to not flex.

 

[Old Donn]

Never a 3/8". Did break an old Bonney 1/2" drive on a stubborn lug nut, no cheaters.

 

[Wakefield]

I hope tool company engineers read the stuff on this forum! Craftsman's?

 

[UBLUZIN]

That was with no cheater bar, believe it or not. It was with a 18mm socket getting some caliber bolts off..

 

[dj00140]

That's a good break there Ubluzin!

I bought this one brand new off the truck and never used a cheater on it. It did hold up to around 4 years of daily use. I think I only had to have one kit in the whole time. I broke an SK 1/4 in last night on loosening 1/4-20 bolt. It just locked up though.

anyone know which model this is???????

 

[jim2664258]

Ok, I have to ask. You guys just don't like using breaker bars? Not a flame, just a question.

 

[byoungblood]

I've broken a few RP Craftsmans. I've always broken off teeth on the gear or pawl, though I can only think of one specific time where I should have probably used a 1/2" drive ratchet instead.

I bought my first SO ratchet specifically because I got tired of warrantying the Craftsman ones. Now I don't have a single RP ratchet in my main box.

 

[eborcim]

gosh no...duralast stuff is forever

 

[Ghostrider]

I broke my snappy SX80, snapped the pin then one of the ears off. In the ratchet's defense it was on a 450 degree extruder barrel, 1 inch bolt and an odd angle.

 

[G1GRANDEUR]

18mm? should have used 1/2 ratchet.

 

[treasureseeker]

Yes, mainly on the old Ford 13/16 sparkplugs but also on other vintage V 8's

 

[nitropowered]

I strip out the gears on 1/4" all the time but never a 3/8 (yet)

 

[shampoop]

anyone know which model this is???????

One of the locking flex head models. I have one. Love it.

 

[Benji]

Under normal every day use broke lesser rachets and stripped snap on's

 

[Keep]

Only one, a Craftsman 3/8 quick release. Twisted the drive end right off trying to take out a caliper bolt.

 

[smoky]

over the years I've broke a few. the last one I broke was a 1/4 drive. I was lazy and tried to use it to remove a 1/4" 4pt pipe plug. the plug won and it ate the anvil part of the ratchet. it all worked out in the end, because I got to buy a GP pipe plug set.

 

[Steevo]

I have a couple of broken ones in my toolbox now.

 

[BigAl62]

I've broken several Snap On long handle ratchets and I currently have a broken Cornwell long flex head ratchet (and no Cornwell dealer for warranty). On all of these I've broken teeth off. I guess I should have used 1/2" drive, but in all cases there was no clearance for that which is why I used 3/8" drive.

 

[DrkMtnDew]

yeah but they were some really cheap china ratchets.

 

[dankicksass]

I have a couple broken Kobalt brand roto ratchets on the bench right now, a broken Channellock in a drawer, broke every Snap-On I ever had in the first half of the last decade but I've had better luck lately.

 

[FergusonTO35]

I used to have a couple of Mac pear head ratchets. The gears and pawl held up just fine but the flimsy screws and direction switch always broke or wouldn't stay tight. Replaced 'em with Snappy and Matco and haven't had a problem since.

 

[Griff93]

anyone know which model this is???????

flx936

 

[garfunkle24]

I used to break my Mac Microtough 3/8" ratchet every couple of weeks but I liked it so much I just kept getting warranty exchanges until Mac stopped carrying them. At which point I bought the identical ratchet from Canadian Tire and started doing the same thing.

Just a weak design, but the tiny head on those ratchets is awesome.

I still have the ratchet, but use my Dual 80s a lot more now.

 

[4x4gearhead]

The only time I ever really broke one I snapped the anvil off of an old S-K 45170, other than that it has just been a gear failure here and there.

 

[juniork5]

Only one I broke was the guts in my snap on removing a harmonic balancer.

 

[sberry]

I think this is a place Craftsman really shoots themselves in the foot, maybe the bean counters know something we don't but the 1/4 and 3/8 ratchet has hurt a lot of their tool sales. I am not all that fussy when it comes to hand tools but those are nothing to write home,,, or to a forum about. I wonder what the % of replacement numbers are, some are probably used sparingly but they have replaced a lot of them, back in the day some were pretty good but when they need replacement they give a piece of junk that needs replaced again.

 

[TWX]

I've never broken a 3/8" drive. I've had both 1/2" and 1/4" drive ratchets fail to stay engaged in one direction or another. I've never had one completely reverse.

All have been Craftsman.

I've used my flex-head long-handled 3/8" Craftsman ratchet for a lot more torque than it rightly should have had applied to it without any indications of a problem. I've been meaning to get a solid long-handled unit, but they're always so expensive that I have a hard time justifying one when 1/2" is almost always an option.

 

[Sterff]

Did this to a FL936. No cheater was used I just pulled too hard I guess

 

[ndoran]

I broke one about 25 years ago. It was a flex head POS I bought when I did not know any better. I stripped the teeth the first time i used it, took it back and the guy who sold it to me was shocked and asked what i did to it and I told him I only used it to attempt to undo a thermostat housing bolt which it failed to do. I undid all three nuts with my Hilka (Taiwan) 1/4 inch set. He reluctantly refunded my money.

I still have that 1/4 inch set bought it in halfords in 1979 for 5 pounds. It came with sockets in: metric 1mm increments from 3mm to 12mm, SAE from 3/32 to 1/2 in 1/32 increments and BA from 12 to 0 , a ratchet, two extensions a breaker bar and a sliding T bar I think there are 54 pieces. I still have all of the bits in my box. I have never broken a socket in it and the round head ratchet works perfectly. I have used the sockets with 3/8 ratchets and never had a problem and they are all made from a different size forhing so they all have thin walls. Even the chrome is still good. i remember wondering if they would be any good - I wish I had two sets now. I finally bought it because my dad ho was a heavy truck mechanic had Hikla 1/2 inch set he used every day at work and it held up great the ratchet lasted fo 15 years before it finally gave up after one cheater bar too many the sockets never broke he just lost them or they got stolen. He never worried because he was given the socket set by one of his parts suppliers.

 

[Skin]

I think this is a place Craftsman really shoots themselves in the foot, maybe the bean counters know something we don't but the 1/4 and 3/8 ratchet has hurt a lot of their tool sales. I am not all that fussy when it comes to hand tools but those are nothing to write home,,, or to a forum about. I wonder what the % of replacement numbers are, some are probably used sparingly but they have replaced a lot of them, back in the day some were pretty good but when they need replacement they give a piece of junk that needs replaced again.

Buy a breaker bar? Your [ab]use is an oddity compared to the normal Cman shopper. Someone buying a raised panel is most likely doing it just to change the spark plug on the mower. At most perhaps the very basic car maintenance [battery/oil/air filter etc..]. Few if any are going to tear into a vehicle, or anything like that, these days.

 

[Bart Simpson]

anyone know which model this is???????

Yes it is a FX936A

 

[Nova_Guy]

I have the same 1/2 drive ratchet that came with the set my dad gave me in 1982, it and the used extra long proto ratchet he gave around the same time. I don't know how you guys manage to break a ratchet by bare hand. I don't have enough arm strength to break a ratchet. I have busted several sockets, they have all been deep well socket being used to remove head bolts on SBC and BBC engines. You have to use a thin walled socket to get on them in the head.

 

[canuckian]

Yep...snapped the square drive off of an fl936....would have busted a couple knuckles up if I hadn't been wearing gloves!

 

[TWX]

Did this to a FL936. No cheater was used I just pulled too hard I guess

That there's what you use now for weird angled places!

 

[Rich H.]

Have broken several craftsman raised panels, one craftsman "professional" (ha!) flex head long bent handle, one Snap On flex head hard handle/long bent handle.

Never wrecked the housing on any of them, just did in the gears.

The snap on was purchased used so I bought a kit for it form snapon.com. Kit arrived with a tooth broken already, and the broken chip of metal still there in the bag. Quality? I ate the cost of that, gave it to a buddy who works where the tool truck stops by a few times a week, and got it fixed through him.

 

[hammergodthor]

About 10 years ago, I used to strip out 3/8 Craftsman every year or two (no cheater), don't use Crapsman ratchets anymore, no more problems.