20+ year old Blue Point air ratchet repair.

For what it's worth, I may have mentioned previously that I had picked up a Central Pnuematic Professional 3/8" air ratchet because my old Blue Point ratchet died... I went ahead and ordered the repair parts when I had Snap On support on the phone getting a replacement for a busted deep well flank drive socket while I was on the phone I ordered the one part that went funky on it...

I did some Googleing to find the cause of an air ratchet that won't shut off and has no resistance to the trigger.  From my research including looking at the parts diagram there is a rubber "valve" stopper on the end of a spring between the pushrod and the screw on black plastic cap. Sure enough when I opened it up the stopper was crumbling and had failed.

I got the replacement and installed it last night.
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The new piece is no longer rubber, but appears to be clear urethane,

The clear urethane valve replaces the rubber part. It should hold up longer

than the old rubber part.

Use a flat screw driver and turn the black plastic cap counter clockwise.

Once free CAREFULLY remove the cap insuring nothing falls free from the cavity.

I foolishly forgot to snap a pic of the crumbled rubber piece.

I cleaned it outand cleaned the cavity. You should have the cap

and spring out, the rest of the parts should stay internal.

Assemble the new "Valve" urethane piece onto 

the spring and insert valve first into the bore.

Reassemble the cap and tighten  CAREFULLY

so as to not crack the cap or bind the spring.

Once installed, I fired up the compressor and tested it out. It did not disappoint. I had to remove the winch from the truck, to move the license plate out from behind it, to a relocation bracket that goes in front of the roller fairlead. Using the air ratchet made quick work of the job, good thing too. It's been raining, a lot around here lately, and it is HUMID and HOT right now... Speeding this miserable job up was a God send for sure!

So if you are like me, and have old pnuematic tools that have failed, please do yourself a favor, and try to find troubleshooting information and repair parts for them... I REALLY didn't want to replace this ratchet, and honestly, it is kind of nice having 2... Now I can have different sockets on each and swap between quickly!

Another thing to mention is pnuematic tool seals dry out over time. Periodically crank up that compressor, oil the tool and run it a couple of cycles. Drive some brads, nails, run some bolts etc... Just put them to use or they WILL go bad...