Well, we finally made it to the Type 14 Craftsman Teardrop Ratchets. These are the last ratchets that will be covered by this Type Study. You may recall that early on, I said I stopped the Study when the ratchet head configurations changed and the directional levers were made out of plastic. All that occurred somewhere right around 1993. If you've already looked at the photos, you've noticed that there are four different 1/2" drive ratchets depicted. The reason for that relates to the fact that between approximately 1986 and 1993, the manufacturer's marks stamped on the handles seemed to be in an almost constant state of change. From a mechanical and visual perspective, all the ratchets stayed the same, with the exception of the 1/4" drive, which was finally produced without the oil hole (NonOH for nomenclature purposes) and with a new model number, 43186, likely connected to the fact that the oil hole was eliminated on this version. As I mentioned, it was the manufacturer's marks that kept changing, starting with -VE- and proceeding though -VF-, VF and ending with -VG- in 1993. I believe that as new production runs were made, the manufacturer's marks changed, possibly to track quality, warrantied tools, etc. What's interesting is that there were two different versions of the VF mark. One had single lines (-VF-) and one was stamped without the lines (VF). I really don't know why this is, but suspect that it could be a similar situation to the Type 9 and Type 10 versions. If you recall, I surmised that two different production lines or facilities were producing ratchets at the same time, possibly to keep up with demand. If you take a close look at the two examples of VF ratchets shown below, it's pretty clear that the stampings on both sides of each handle are different from each other leading me to think they were made by two different sources. Since both bear VF marks, I'm again guessing that they were made during the same time period. The final manufacturer's mark associated with the Type 14 is -VG-. I believe this mark appeared very late in 1992 and into 1993. The reason for my assumption is that I've seen early, next generation Craftsman Teardrop Ratchets (those that fall outside of this Type Study) with plastic directional levers, also stamped with the -VG- mark. EVERYTHING I just said applies in full to the 1/2" and 3/8" drive Type 14 ratchets, and mostly to the 1/4" drive Type 14 ratchet. When I feature the 1/4" drive Type 14 ratchets, I'll spell out the differences, again those being the elimination of the oil hole and the model number change. The only other difference is that while the 1/2" and 3/8" Type 14 ratchets are marked with -VE-, -VF-, VF and -VG-, the 1/4" is also found with those four marks AND the -V-. Again, when I get to the 1/4" drive, I'll point those features out one more time.
So, for this post, since there are literally thirteen different ratchets in the Type 14 class, spread across all three drive sizes, I thought it made sense to feature and depict them by drive size. In my next post I'll feature the 3/8" drive Type 14 ratchets, and end with another post featuring the 1/4” drive Type 14 ratchets. Here's the Type 14 nomenclature for the 1/2" drive size.
Type 14: 1986 (+/-) - 1993, TD, NonOH, LL, QR, FA, -VE- -VF- VF -VG-, 44985
(represents 1/2" drive size)