Quickly adjustable ratchet wrench

Abstract

A quickly adjustable ratchet wrench is essentially a crescent wrench modified by eliminating the adjusting screw and substituting a locking member and a lever to engage and disengage the locking member with the rack on the movable wrench jaw. A tension spring lightly biases the movable jaw toward closed position. With the locking member disengaged from the rack, the movable jaw may be manually opened, and when the movable jaw is released the light spring bias closes the jaws on a bolt head. When the wrench jaws are engaged with a bolt head, rotation of the lever arm in one direction engages the locking member with the rack to turn the bolt, while rotation of the lever arm in the other direction disengages the locking member and permits the jaws to open against the light spring bias and slip over the angles of the bolt head; thus eliminating the need to remove and replace the wrench on the bolt head. The lever is pivoted substantially on the line of movement of the movable jaw. The rack on the movable jaw is convex so as to include part of the sides of the jaw, and the locking member is concave so as to engage substantially the entire rack. A telescoping spring anchor permits elimination of spring tension when desired.