Duro-Chrome 678D Questions

[misterbill]

I picked up this Duro-Chrome 678D 1/2" ratchet recently along with some other nicely oxidized bits. Two questions:

1. How was the selector held on? Were the corners of the selector shaft peened over to hold it?

2. How difficult would it be to make a replacement selector do you think?

Bill

 

[bonneyman]

Nice ratchet!

Yes, the corners are peened over. It's not too difficult to fashion a selector knob. Depending on how close to looking original you want.

 

[misterbill]

Nice ratchet!

Yes, the corners are peened over. It's not too difficult to fashion a selector knob. Depending on how close to looking original you want.

Thanks, b-man. Anybody have an exemplar and a micrometer handy? How thick is that selector?

Bill

 

[d42jeep]

Bill,
I had one where the original selector was still in place but loose. I made some effort at peening the selector shaft to tighten it up with no success whatsoever. I suspect that during the original manufacturing process they used quite a bit of force with a press to do the peening.
-Don

 

[DadsTools]

I had one of these before. They did a piss poor job attaching that selector. But it's also one of those rats that they pressed together, so the thinking here was probably cheap cheap cheap.

 

[bonneyman]

What I've done is get a strip of stainless steel the right dimensions and carefully square out a hole in one end that's SLIGHTLY smaller than the square post on the ratchet. Then - using some old sockets - I press the selector on in a vise. It's the metal in the strip that gets distorted - alot easier than trying to mush out the post. FWIW