Happened upon a Matco USA 88 tooth ratchet today and picked it up cheap. Selector kinda gets jammed when trying to switch directions unless I pull the anvil down while I'm switching? Was wondering if anyone knew where I could get a repair kit? Matco website says they have them in stock but when I go to add it to my cart, they say no longer available?
88 Tooth Ratchet Repair help?
- Thread starter Zevadyah
- Start date
Schurkey
Well-known member
Did cleaning and fresh lube make any difference?
Am I wrong? The "88 tooth" ratchets were Armstrong clones, and Armstrong is long gone. Therefore, no more 88 tooth repair kits.
Am I wrong? The "88 tooth" ratchets were Armstrong clones, and Armstrong is long gone. Therefore, no more 88 tooth repair kits.
AJ manufacturing has been making the Matco 88 ratchets for the last few years. The kits interchange since the design is the same. If you just call Matco they'll mail you a kit, no charge.
Matco had 88 tooth ratchets for years before Armstrong switched over. At the time of development Matco and Armstrong were Danaher brands and as Matco was the boutique premium line they had exclusivity when it came to new products. Armstrong also never came close to approaching the number of ratchet variants that Matco offered.
I actually preferred the 60 tooth mechanism. They seemed to have far fewer issues with stuck pawls. Because the spring tension is so light you also can't put grease in them or they jam. They use 3in1 oil at the factory and I found the thickest thing you can get away with is transmission or differential oil. Even the thinnest grease causes the pawl to stick.
Matco had 88 tooth ratchets for years before Armstrong switched over. At the time of development Matco and Armstrong were Danaher brands and as Matco was the boutique premium line they had exclusivity when it came to new products. Armstrong also never came close to approaching the number of ratchet variants that Matco offered.
I actually preferred the 60 tooth mechanism. They seemed to have far fewer issues with stuck pawls. Because the spring tension is so light you also can't put grease in them or they jam. They use 3in1 oil at the factory and I found the thickest thing you can get away with is transmission or differential oil. Even the thinnest grease causes the pawl to stick.
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Schurkey
Well-known member
Thanks for that. I thought the AJ ratchets were a whole different design.
Danaher screwed a lot of people, by buying and then screwing a lot of formerly-respectable brand names. Apex doesn't seem to be much better.
I learned that lesson on Proto torque-wrench ratchets. White grease made them soooooo smoooooth. (Until the gear popped a tooth.)
My usual ratchet lube now is Sealed Power engine assembly lube, a moderately-thick liquid. Sounds like even that stuff would be too thick for the 88-tooth jobs.
Fedwrench
ALLIANCE MEMBER
Not True. The many brands that once made up the Danaher tool empire were just fine under Danaher. It was the formation of the Apex tool group that led to the death of Armstrong, KD, and most of the US production of NAPA, Craftsman, Allen and other brands. Apex expanded Gearwrench and moved many previously US made brand production to China, People's Republic of.
I, too, have noticed that alot. Fine tooth ratchets don't like grease.
It's not an 88 tooth version (36 tooth I think), but I have an older 1/2" ratchet I picked up a few years ago. It needed a rebuild kit, so I recently contacted Matco asking which kit would fit and they offered to send me a rebuild kit, no questions asked beyond name and address. Had it a few days later.
So if you can't get the website to work, try sending Matco an e-mail with the model number and the issue you're having. I bet they send one out to you.
Otherwise last time I had one rebuilt, I had my driver (at the time) change it out.
So if you can't get the website to work, try sending Matco an e-mail with the model number and the issue you're having. I bet they send one out to you.
Otherwise last time I had one rebuilt, I had my driver (at the time) change it out.
That's a funny thing.
My general impression is that there's been a tendency, for years, of starting out with a mega-company buying up related companies to build a portfolio (for some reason in the US, small specialty hand tool companies can't seem to survive although they manage in Europe. Go figure.). There's always handwaving about about making the R&D more efficient, advantages to scale, blah blah.
Step two (after step one doesn't produce EZ profits) is to spin off the companies to financial management companies like Bain. The brands become just that, brands, and over time the company ends up gutted down to a marketing and distribution arm. Manufacturing (and then engineering, usually software first) is moved to lowest cost overseas providers. I would think that Fortive will go down this route also.
Yeah, the 1/2" and 1/4" I can add to my cart, but 3/8" is no dice thus far. I'm on hold with matco right now about it to see if I can get one. If not, I may have found another route online
Called Matco and got a repair kit sent out free of charge. Thank you guys, I was about to drop $23 on a kit from a retailer
If I'm thinking of the right ratchet mine had a little trouble switching directions before I deep cleaned it. A little bit of built up gunk around the selector was the cause on mine. Not hard to disassemble and reassemble quick too so might be worth tearing it down and cleaning everything up. Always worth having a back up kit in case there's appreciable wear but check the parts out first and see if there's any visible buildup or damage.
I took it apart and cleaned it, and it still did the same. I guess I can go through it another time after work a little better and see if that does it or not, couldn't hurt
I actually had an 84 tooth repair kit for a craftsman thin profile laying around, so I switched the selector from that into this ratchet and it works much much better. That'll be good enough at least until the replacement kit from Matco comes in
Kscardsfan
Well-known member
Who is AJ Manufacturing and their ratchets?
Lesserstore
Well-known member
http://www.ajmanufacturing.com/
On their history page it says that they make/made tools for Matco, MAC, Snap On, Sears and a few others.