Most of the Stanleys have the same basic mechanism, just a bit bigger or smaller depending on the model. But I suppose that Stanley have economised over the years ( an understatement I think ) and some of the internals are a bit different ( I learnt this on all pre-eighties models ) but it looks like you all have mostly older models, as I do - and i'll be going by a 135A that I have.
Work on a clean, flat surface with a lightish background ( a light coloured old sheet or large cloth over a table would do ) so you can see small bits if you drop them. And have a piece of paper and a pencil handy to make notes about what goes where and what way round it is.
First clean the extending ratchet mechanism with a wire brush and get all the muck off. If you use it for mainly woodwork it shouldn't be too bad but if it's ever encountered any metalwork and grease, they do clog up. It should pretty much shine when done.
Then remove the tiny grub screw holding the cylindrical chrome cover onto the gear housing. Set the selector to the middle lock position. To remove the housing slide it backwards whilst depressing the tiny ridged selector button. Take it slowly because the thing is sprung slightly. You may need to depress it fully into the slot with a small screwdriver or something similar. ( If you find that the selector has gone a bit limp over the years and it's not really worn or in need of replacing, use a pair of needle nose pliers and carefully bend the sides downwards slightly along the folds that are already there to give it more resistance upwards in the slot. ) There is also a flat selector cover which sits on top of the ridged selector which should come out with it.
Take note of the position of the "h" selector shims when the chrome cover is removed and what it all looks like for when you go to reassemble.
Remove the "h" shaped gear selector shims. Make a note of which one goes to the top and which goes to the bottom ( although you can usually tell by looking underneath at the worn, shiny part ) If those two are very worn you can sometimes reverse them on reassembly, ie: top to bottom and vice versa and get it to work fine.
Remove the big endcap screw from the handle and take out the big spring. The ratchett will be limp now.
On the back of the gear housing you will see three little metal spigots that have to be removed to continue dissassembly ( well the top two do..I've never removed the bottom one. But it must do something ) Carefully drift them out. Some are stiff, some just fall out. The small one goes into the center slot and holds the two brass forward and reverse gears apart and the top one prevents the ridged locking collar from being removed. Now unscrew the ridged locking collar and slide it up the ratchett being careful because underneath it are two small ball bearings. If it's badly worn they will drop out. Now slide the brass gears up the ratchett shaft and start cleaning with whatever you use.
At this point you may ask, "how do I get the ratchett to come apart from the handle". The short answer is i've never had to take it off because when I was doing this and getting paid ( ha! ) we had heavy-duty compressed air hoses and I just blew the rubbish out of the little housing with that. I noticed in this thread that Karl said he had stripped one down so I would be interested to hear how far he got and if he managed to get the thing apart totally. It certainly comes apart because Stanley sell the spares and you cannot replace a broken ratchett, or anything else, without doing so.
If this is a far as you need to disassemble then use a small toothbrush with cleaner/degreasent and maybe an old collet brush to get it clean in the gear housing ( fiddly but do-able ) and all the other bits. If you wash the degreaser out of the housing afterwards just let it all dry in a warm place overnight.
The brass forward and reverse gears may need a tidy up with a needle file to sharpen up any worn edges and remove any burrs.
When everything is clean just give it all a light oil and reassemble in the reverse order. It should feel a lot smoother now when in use.
Can't do that with a bloody 300 quid li-ion drill!
And they don't last 40+ years!!
