Should a torque wrench ratchet head be greased?

[CarbonCrew]

I picked up Pittsburg Pro 1/4" torque wrench from Harbor Freight tonight. I needed something cheap for my scooter. Anyhow, straight out of the box the ratchet felt notchy. I opened it up and found this, is it normal?

 

[nato]

Sure is, especially with lower-end 'brand named' company ratchets. My $300 Matco at least had a slight "film" of oil on most of the parts when I opened it up for the first time. I lubed the **** out of it, just like any typical ratchet. It won't hurt anything since all mechanism in the in shaft/handle part of the wrench---the ratchet's there to simply serve its' purpose.

feel free to grease your heart out!

ps-Those internals are EXACTLY what my E-Z Red 1/2" extendable flex-head ratchet looks like and it was extremely smooth for being a dry ratchet. After some grease, it was so smooth.

 

[CarbonCrew]

Sweet, I'll find some EP grease and load this thing up. Thanks!

 

[SpiderGearsMan]

what is that ? like 8 bucks ?

 

[G1GRANDEUR]

Use light weight grease or thick oil. Some ratchets tend to not operate well with grease.

 

[SpiderGearsMan]

none of my manual ratchets never have been greased ..most are over 20 years old

 

[GoBlue]

I put red syn bearing grease in my craftsman ratchets...no problems to date...and they operate much smoother