Most of my Craftsman tools (and I have quite a few) I purchased new in 1973. Had one 1/2" drive rachet that stripped the gears, but that was back in early '90's. Went to Sears and they wanted to just replace it with a new one. I said no, I'd prefer to repair it. (Quality was already starting to go downhill) So the guy went into the back and came out with a complete repair kit for my rachet. He said this kit had just been sitting on the shelf back there for years and wasn't even available to order any longer since nobody wanted to repair the old ones anymore. Since they were not interested in repairing it, I took the kit home (he had two of them, I took both) and repaired the rachet myself. Other than that one problem, my '70's Craftsman tools have been and still are just fine. Use them almost EVERY day.
