The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Tool Chest Need help identifying antique Snap-On ratchet

Need some help dating this ratchet. Alloy Artifacts is a little short on getting past the '40's (70-series...)

This is a PV 71M 3/8 drive reversible ratchet. It is 6 inches long. Has no hole in the far end and no markings on the underside. Top side is marked "PV 71M Snap-on USA" (not "Kenosha").

Is this '50's vintage?

I'm gonna guess it's earlier than the 1949 71NA they have on their site. HERE.
That's based on the M in yours being before N in the alphabet.

Here's a 71-M that seems to be assembled a little backwards. Says it's a '52 date code.

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Can you make out a number stamped to the right of "USA", John?
The 2 stamped on Mark's example is pretty small, but visible in the photo.

Thanks gents, but this one is "PV 71M" not "No. 71"

There is nothing to the right of "USA" and there is no hole at the end.

Kevin -- in your first post ... notice the markings on this one in the reversal switch cut out area and less text cast into the handle. I'm thinking '50's or even a little later.

John,

Web searching came across this forum discussion about the Snap On FV71M ratchet:

https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/threads/snap-on-fv71m-ratchet-rebuild-question.351506/

Seems there is some thinking the the "V" indicates may have been a military issue tool and possible from the '60s???

Also mentions a currently available Snap On rebuild kit to restore the ratchet if worn out (RKRA380).

I also found what is noted as a Snap On "Date" code chart that may be of help in determining the date of this ratchet (maybe - maybe not)???

I didn't see anything looking like a date code in your pictures.

Helpful - Yes/No/Maybe So???

John,
I found an old 1/2 ratchet a while back and our good friend John L. had me open it up and clean, inspect and regrease. Easy. It is now my most reached for ratchet.

On the otherhand - it might be an overseas knockoff and you might just throw it across the garage.

Watching closely as I have the exact same wrench that my dad had in his tool box. I’m guessing late fifties or early sixties.

Dan.... Interesting. The ratchet pictured in that discussion is marked identically to this one.

HB ... Indeed. Was there a spring in there? A little PB Blaster seems to have done wonders, though. Was not operable when I found it and I could not remove the socket that was rust welded to it. The penetrating oil seems to have fully restored function and a little more wire brushing will undoubtedly return this little guy to its full patina'd glory.

Makes sense that it would be a Military tool ... It didn't wander very far ... Still ... very interesting that even into the sixties, we were procuring tools on a contract that would have had the tools specifically marked like that -- probably to alert the dealers that the tool was *not* covered by a warranty (so they could sell a replacement to the Government rather than give them another for free ... and some contract specialist was clueless enough to not notice it ...)

And now you begin to understand where $5,000 ratchet wrenches and $600 toilet seats come from .... Eisenhower was right!

JM

I carried those ratchets in a USAF tool bag on flight lines all over the world in the late 1960's and early 70's. Uncle Sam bought untold thousands of them, and they followed a lot of GI mechanics home. They were stolen almost as frequently as WW II 1911 pistols!
Jerry

Jerry .... We Marines never steal anything. We merely rehome tools carelessly left unattended by our sister services...

An older guy I used to work on a Navy base with would make the joke that all he had to do to clean his garage was walk in and announce "TEN-HUT" because half the things in there would line up for inspection.

He just up and disappeared one day. I can't help but feel those might have been related.

A Navy buddy of mine kept getting nagged about why he hadn't taken that deuce and a half to the DRMO yet!
After weeks of not receiving any confirmation from DRMO to accept said deuce and a half, he simply drove it home.
It is still there 30 years later.
His CO commended him for finally squaring things away with the pesky DRMO and got that beast of a truck out of there.

That is not a ratchet wrench. Judging by its diminutive size and gouges in the business end of it, that is a Navy hammer, designated as a SFH.
No need for the Navy to keep those clean, or out of the salt air to serve its intended purpose, thus the locked up condition in which it was found.

Yeah, that sounds about right.

Back on topic: John, did you find the info you need? Not sure if the suggestions here before things got sidetracked covered you or not.

On a more serious note, Snap-on changed script font at some point (maybe more than once) which is supposed to indicate approximately when they were make.

Yeah, I got one of those (the ratchet not the 1911) from my grandpa. He worked for the US-Army over here at the motor pool - he said it was "fallen from a truck" ;-)

Frank

I have a ratchet like that. I traded for it almost 60 years ago. One of my high school friends was a supply clerk for the Navy. He was the one who engraved the USN on the tools. But some of them failed to get marked. Years later a Snap-On salesman told me the V in the model number denoted government issue. I still have quite a few tools I traded for. My friend traded tools for things like a set of tires. The time would have been somewhere between 1962 when we got out of high school and October 1969 when his 1957 Nomad was washed off of a bridge.

My Snap-On truck guy told me the same thing back in the late 1970's when I tried to get a broken socket replaced- - - - -"M" or "V" in the part number designated military issue. No warranty! I had bought a whole set of ratchets, sockets, and extensions at a "surplus" sales business on Okinawa- - - - -probably liberated from a supply depot somewhere!
Jerry

Found this Snap on date chart. I don't know if it will help or not

Ah, the twists and turns of the Snap-on saga. I recently saw som WWII sockets for sale in E-bay. I am in the proocess of replicating my open end wrenches and sockets and ratchets Made In Canada. This is a good forum for finding information about obscure pieces https://collectingsnapon.com/forum/
Hope this helps.
Pete