Craftsman 3/8" drive DIGITORK ratchet mechanism (1 Viewer)

[Malleus]

My Craftsman DIGITORK torque wrench's ratcheting mechanism isn't ratcheting. Nothing appears to be broken. I opened the head, disaasembled and reassembled it, but no joy. I can't see more than one way to assemble it.

I would appreciate any insight about how this ratcheting mechanism is supposed to work and what's wrong here.

Here are the particulars:

 

[Malleus]

So, after many failed attempts to find wisdom in the Googleverse, I got bored with the problem and just started fiddling. It turns out that there is only one way to put the parts together, but one of them has a built in failure mechanism. (I hate springs)

The wire spring forces the cam into the corner, locking the ratcheting mechanism. Mine had two faults (in addition to the primary one: its existence). The first was that the engagement arm has to be 90° to the wound portion; mine wasn't. The first photo is as found, the second is my approximation of what it should have looked like.

The second was easier to see, once I knew what the problem was. The wound portion was unwound, resulting it too little spring tension against the cam. A little judicious reforming and everything works as it should.

Apparently, the Craftsman design is universal, at least in this generation (I think I bought this 20 years ago). HTH someone with a ratchet problem in the future.

 

[1911]

Every Craftsman torque wrench I've ever had has broken, and their lifetime warranty doesn't apply to torque wrenches. So I quit buying buying them, and spent my money on (second-hand) Snap-on torque wrenches. Problem solved.