HF Pittsburgh ratchet directional lever

[71goldss]

First off, I own both of the original black and gray 1/4" and 3/8" Pittsburgh composite ratchets and love them! They are my go-to's, even over my Craftsman thin profiles and GearWrench 120 XP's, which I also like.

That said, I purchased the newer longer handled black and red 3/8" Pittsburgh composite ratchet a few months ago and hadn't had a chance to try it out until today. Instantly I discovered that the directional lever was stuck in one position. Not wanting to spend an hour looking for my receipt, I decided to just take it apart and lube it. Once apart, the lever moved freely, but I lubed it up anyway since everything was bone dry. After reassembly and with the screws tightened, I still had a stuck lever. What the hell! Upon further inspection of my other composite ratchets, I noticed that the screw holding the lever needs to be loose enough for the screw head to pivet in the cover plate when the lever moves back and forth. Backing the tension off on the screw solved the problem, but now I feel the screw will probably continue to back itself out with use. I added some blue threadlocker to the threads, but without actually being able to completely tighten the screw, I'm curious if the threadlocker is going to do the trick? Guess time will tell?

I did discover that I'm able to tighten the lever screws down on my other composite ratchets pretty tight without binding and the screws are still able to pivet, so maybe this new one is just defective and I need to find that receipt! Still, this just seems like a very poor design, so I'm curious if anyone else has had issues with it? With exception to my 3/8" flex head Kobalt ratchet, none of my other Craftsman or Gearwrench ratchets have this design.

 

[jlh92]

I've never needed a receipt for a Harbor Freight exchange.

 

[71goldss]

I've never needed a receipt for a Harbor Freight exchange.

Thx for the info! I just assumed it was required. Good thing, because I can't find it. I have a gallon ziplock bag I store my tool receipts in, but small HF purchases sometimes don't make it to the bag.

 

[kunkernator]

Yup, as long as the tool has a "Harbor Freight" brand on it, they will not hesitate. The ONLY thing I have EVER had an issue with was a deadblow, before they put "Pittsburgh" branding on it (Used to be just a sticker, that of course wore off). I grabbed one off the shelf, the cashier saw they were identical, and gave it to me.

 

[EricBigNally]

What I was told the last time I was in harbor freight (to buy one of those composite ratchets which I love) they said no receipt was required like it was part of their training to say. At checkout the lady just said "that Pittsburgh ratchet has a lifetime warranty. Just bring it back in if it ever fails. No receipt required" as if read from a script.

 

[90zcar]

I honestly feel harbor freight is growing. If they really push their customer service like they are it's going to be the "go to" took place as far as consumer grade tools


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[1950mercury]

All the composit ratchets I have come with blue lock tight on the torx screws. Yes if you tighten the screw to tight on the reversing lever it gets to tight to switch. And no you don't need a receipt to return stuff. Thank god because 90% of the receipts now a days the ink disappears after a while

 

[71goldss]

Even the Pittsburgh Pro ratchets have this lever design and I've yet to find comments regarding it when doing a GJ or Google search. With exception to complaints on the floppy heads on the flex heads, the Pittsburgh Pro's get overall pretty great reviews. I now feel I'd pass on them simply because of this lever design! Hmmm...I still love my composite ratchets though, so I guess I'm actually on both sides of the fence on this one!

 

[gungatim]

no receipt needed, as others said on Pittsburgh hand tools.

I just went in yesterday for some stuff, got my 50th the free screwdriver set, and she actually told me they were warranted for life, no receipt needed...even the freebie cheapo stuff...

they also just started emailing receipts instead of hard copy's at my store. good way to never lose the receipt for something if you save your email to a file...

 

[HanShotFirst]

I have really become a fan of that stupid composite ratchet. Light, low profile, fine tooth, and damn strong. No you won't find me putting a cheater bar on it, that's just dumb. But I don't exactly baby it either. I plan on picking up the 1/4" and 1/2" also, they're just too good a ratchet to not have.

 

[dnschmidt]

If it works what's the complaint? Has anybody reported the blue Loctite not doing the job? Have there been any reports of the reversing levers falling off?

I sell TOPTUL and I hate to admit it but the new composite ratchets and the new Professional ratchets have just about killed the TOPTUL ratchet business except for a few select models. The truth is that they're damn good and absolutely unbeatable for the money. God, it hurts me to say that but it's true.

If HF continues to go down this road of continuous improvement they will own the tool business in the USA. If I could buy stock in HF I'd buy a shitload of it.

 

[HanShotFirst]

If it works what's the complaint? Has anybody reported the blue Loctite not doing the job? Have there been any reports of the reversing levers falling off?

I sell TOPTUL and I hate to admit it but the new composite ratchets and the new Professional ratchets have just about killed the TOPTUL ratchet business except for a few select models. The truth is that they're damn good and absolutely unbeatable for the money. God, it hurts me to say that but it's true.

If HF continues to go down this road of continuous improvement they will own the tool business in the USA. If I could buy stock in HF I'd buy a shitload of it.

And that about sums it up. HF's sockets and ratchets are just superior products at a very low cost. They are BY FAR the best products they sell, I can't think of anything in a Harbor Freight that approaches that quality.

Their other tools are decent quality, but their sockets and ratchets are very good quality. I honestly think you need to buy tool truck to get better sockets and ratchets. But again, I can't say that for the rest of their stuff. For most of their tools, I find them adequate and sometimes good.

I'm impressed with their screwdrivers, they seem to be approaching the metallurgical quality of their sockets and ratchets, but the finish quality is still poor. So they're good screwdrivers if you don't mind ugly.

 

[warweapon762]

I honestly feel harbor freight is growing. If they really push their customer service like they are it's going to be the "go to" took place as far as consumer grade tools


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Quality has improved in the past 10 years immensely. Customer service is much better than most of the other consumer grade tool manufacturers too. At least recently anyway.

 

[71goldss]

If it works what's the complaint? Has anybody reported the blue Loctite not doing the job? Have there been any reports of the reversing levers falling off?

The complaint is that mine wasn't functional right off the shelf! Was it a big deal that it took about a half hour of my time taking it apart and fussing with it to finally correct the problem? No! Thankfully I had my other composites to compare to. As long as the Loctite holds, I'm good. Just curious if others have had problems with theirs. Just seems like it is poor design in what is otherwise an exceptionally great ratchet!

 

[lightning02]

Iv had a 1/4in drive flex head do that to me. I didn't care much as I didn't like the flex head design anyways so I got rid of it. Other wise all my other HF ratchets and kobalt ratchets are fine.

 

[Mechanical Noise]

First off, I own both of the original black and gray 1/4" and 3/8" Pittsburgh composite ratchets and love them! They are my go-to's, even over my Craftsman thin profiles and GearWrench 120 XP's, which I also like.

That said, I purchased the newer longer handled black and red 3/8" Pittsburgh composite ratchet a few months ago and hadn't had a chance to try it out until today. Instantly I discovered that the directional lever was stuck in one position. Not wanting to spend an hour looking for my receipt, I decided to just take it apart and lube it. Once apart, the lever moved freely, but I lubed it up anyway since everything was bone dry. After reassembly and with the screws tightened, I still had a stuck lever. What the hell! Upon further inspection of my other composite ratchets, I noticed that the screw holding the lever needs to be loose enough for the screw head to pivet in the cover plate when the lever moves back and forth. Backing the tension off on the screw solved the problem, but now I feel the screw will probably continue to back itself out with use. I added some blue threadlocker to the threads, but without actually being able to completely tighten the screw, I'm curious if the threadlocker is going to do the trick? Guess time will tell?

I did discover that I'm able to tighten the lever screws down on my other composite ratchets pretty tight without binding and the screws are still able to pivet, so maybe this new one is just defective and I need to find that receipt! Still, this just seems like a very poor design, so I'm curious if anyone else has had issues with it? With exception to my 3/8" flex head Kobalt ratchet, none of my other Craftsman or Gearwrench ratchets have this design.

I have a few HF ratchets of different styles. Probably most of them will lock up if I tighten the screw hard. I put some thread locker on and tighten the screw for a light drag on the adjuster.

Haven't had any problems and I don't think it's much of a flaw.