What grease for old ratchet wrench?

[DugT]

What grease for an old ratchet wrench?

I have an old Thorsen 77 ratchet wrench that had a lot of gunk in the gears. After scraping off some of the gunk I decided to soak it in kerosene to clean it. Now what do I do?

My original lubrication plan was to soak it in molten parrafin and then wipe most of the molten wax off. It works great on bike chains because it last a long time, is low friction and it doesn't collect dirt. It would be a lot easier to just use grease but it would be difficult to get grease into some of the wear areas. What would you use?

The cylindrical part below the wrench is a cap that covers the gears.

 

[Samuel D]

A light oil.

Grease runs the risk of preventing full engagement of the pawls in the teeth. And one slip under load can be enough to destroy a ratchet.

It’s a bit like a bicycle’s freehub mechanism: the ratchet is largely static when loaded, and it’s lightly loaded when moving. Therefore no special lubricant is needed to prevent wear. Rather, the main goal is to prevent corrosion and keep out dirt that may accelerate wear or even cause the ratchet to slip.

It follows that ratchets should click or tick sharply. A lubricant that silences a ratchet is a bad choice for the job.

 

[garfunkle24]

Soaking in atf works well.

 

[CGarage]

I soak in ATF. Then I add Mobile 1 red lithium grease to the teeth.

 

[Ralf11]

I use SuperLube with PTFE on everything now - it is what Snappy puts in their repair kits.

If the viscosity worries you, then use a spray Teflon oil product.

 

[kelpaso1]

A ratchet is a maintenance item. If you are dropping it into the coolant bucket or oil, gas. then you need to take it apart and clean with brake kleen and blow dry. I use a bit of 0w20 synthetic oil in all my SO ratchets and they work perfectly for years. (unless I drop it into the bucket).

 

[DugT]

Thanks for the input!

I have some spray on Lithium grease and I used it because it would get into the hard to reach places. It seemed to leave a thin layer that should work well enough until I am too old to care.

 

[SweetD]

Superlube is good. Anything lightweight and maintain as suggested above.

 

[DugT]

A ratchet is a maintenance item. If you are dropping it into the coolant bucket or oil, gas. then you need to take it apart and clean with brake kleen and blow dry. I use a bit of 0w20 synthetic oil in all my SO ratchets and they work perfectly for years. (unless I drop it into the bucket).

I would have liked to take this ratchet apart further but I think doing that to this wrench would do more harm than good. It looked like three of the parts were press fit and I would have to pound them out.