Williams B-52 ratchet 3/8" found at garage sale

[mrchuck]

Excellent shape. Small and dainty for a 3/8" drive, but feels sturdy.
Inside shows a dual pawl gearing.
Alloy Artifacts has a write-up on it.
Have not used it yet, but will on the next project.
Sticker on handle said 3 Dollars.
No argument here, but sprained my wrist getting my money clip out.

[john k]

Thats terrible, a ratchet that has lost its family, hope you got some Williams sockets to keep it company.  $3, and you didn't even try to lower it, tsk.  I'd have paid 4 even!

[Tool Pants]

Have a few.  Wish I had the proper tool to unscrew the round ring that keeps it together.

[mrchuck]

I viced up the ratchet and used a 2 prong cir-clip remover to un-screw the threaded circle. After several treatments of Kroil, the part un-screwed easily.
The threads are in perfect shape. The main gear had no wear at all.
I sprayed and cleaned up the inside of all ratchet parts, then super-lubed, and installed everything, and re-assembled.
Spins, locks up like a safe.

That 4 ratchet set of yours is what Williams wanted everyone to own.
Yours is the first set I have seen. Beautiful!

[kxxr]

Have a few.  Wish I had the proper tool to unscrew the round ring that keeps it together.

Is/was there such a tool manufactured? What does it look like?

[bonneyman]

Have a few.  Wish I had the proper tool to unscrew the round ring that keeps it together.

Is/was there such a tool manufactured? What does it look like?

I'm game. With a picture maybe somebody could make the thing.

[rusty]

It is a square pin face spanner...and they are NOT cheap....

http://www.gibbtools.com/block.php?block_id=7384

[kxxr]

Boy, I guess 'not cheap'. $100 all said and done.

[rusty]

I have made pin face spanners in a pinch, drill 2 holes in a piece of flat stock or an old wrench, put cut off allen keys in for pins (they are hard as heck if they are good ones, and cheap at the flea), set screws in at a 90 to hold the allens in. But I dunno what you would use to make flat pins for the ratchet head......

[Tool Pants]

The first pic is mine, the rest from the net.  I have more than the 4 in the original pc of this style.  I was able to get only 1 apart without wacking on the slots in the lock ring with a hammer, punch, screwdriver, whatever.  I have soaked this style for months, but it needs force to unscrew the ring if it is screwed on tight.  Either it will unscrew easily on the first attempt, or it will not.  I do not think Loc-Tite is an issue because I do not think it was used.  I think they were screwed on very hard at the factory, and the threads are a fine pitch.  If you are lucky enough to remove the ring, then you must tighten it as much as you can when you put it back together, or the ring can unscrew with you operate the ratchet.

If you wack on it then it can damage whichever of the 4 slots you are hitting on, and then the slots look like crap.

I would like to find a more elegant solution some day.  It is like a gland nut.  You would need 3 different sizes.  The last 3 picture are what I saved from the net of what a proper tool would look like.

[rusty]

Kewl..I forgot Williams made square gland wrenches...Of the 4 above, it is probably the only one hard enough to not break. (Gland nuts are not normally super tight, thus the stamped sheet metal sockets)

That is the first crowsfoot face spanner I have ever seen...
I don't even want to think how screwed you are when you need one of
those and don't have one....

[kxxr]

Well, I'll bite.
Has anyone ever seen the device that JH Williams hisself would use to get these things apart.
Everything pictured looks like reasonable substitutes. The slots aren't really square and it looks like you'd have as good a chance of buggering things with the gland spanner as you might with chisel and hammer.
Maybe these custom pliers were created in an attempt to find a way... I even got out my S-52 to see how they fit in there ... but there's no way to get the proper leverage. That ring is in so tightly that only the proper tool will do .... one with 4 legs. Gives me a chance to show some funny looking pliers once owned by Eric Clapton though.

[keykeeper]

Anyone have measurements of inside/outside diameters needed for the tool?

 I assume they would need a tool for each size of ratchet???

About 20 years ago I made a similar tool for removing the forearm retaining nut on a Remington 870 pump shotgun. It only had two "teeth" but was simple to make. I just found the correct size of thin wall pipe to fit over the magazine tube. I lined up the retaining nut on the end of the pipe, marked off where I needed the teeth, and removed the rest back about 1/8" with hacksaw and grinding wheel on a dremel. Finished with file to straighten up the final fit. Worked like a charm, and I still have it in my firearm toolbox. It's ugly, but it works.

One of these could be made with a little thought and layout work, if a person wanted to take the time. Someone with a small mill and lathe would be able to make them as well, and I'm sure they could do a better job than hand-cutting one like I did.

[Branson]

Eric Clapton pliers?  Jealous here!  Assembly pliers -- think about those tiny, conical springs in some ratchets.  I could have used these a couple of months ago.

[scottg]

I can't believe Williams didn't make and sell the spanner for these?
 They certainly made and sold more pin spanners than anybody else.
 Their older ratchets used pin holes.

  Meanwhile some hard tubing, a bit of work and a little patience would make you one.
 I might start with a thinwall deep socket of the proper size? Start your grinding from there.

 I have been known to abuse sockets for a number of things they were never meant to do. You have all those sizes, thin and regular wall. 
 Of course I was mostly spare Chinese sockets that deserve this abuse.           heeheheh
 yours Scott