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Mitch -- I've seen a few different Champion-branded ratchets, and they looked like they were made by different toolmakers. In the 1970's and maybe into the early 1980's, though, at least some Champion-branded ratchets were built by New Britain Hand Tool Division of Litton Industries. In those years, the New Britain ratchet used a "45 tooth" mechanism featuring a single sliding pawl that was conceptually similar to today's Facom-design "SK Tuff 1" ratchet, although the latter uses a 72 tooth mechanism. The New Britain ratchets used a Tru-Arc-type retaining ring in the drive-lug side of the ratchet head to hold the mechanism in place. New Britain used a 45 in their ratchet part numbers to identify this particular "last generation" mechanism, and the 45 in your Champion's part number hints that it may be one of the ratchets New Britain built for Champion. New Britain Hand Tool sold tools under their own Blackhawk and Husky brand names and through NAPA under the New Britain and Sparta names as well as private-labelling Penncraft tools for J C Penney and a number of smaller-volume customers including Champion. Litton Industries shut down their New Britain Hand Tool Division in 1984, so your chances of finding a new ratchet repair kit are pretty slim. An old NAPA store might have one gathering dust in the back room, but other than that I suspect you'll have to search out a working used ratchet to be a donor. This particular generation of New Britain ratchets used two different mechanism variations ("standard" and "Kwik Socket Release", aka "KSR") in all of their different brands and models (straight, long, flex-head) of the same drive-size, so you can probably track down a donor ratchet without too much trouble. But before you go to that trouble, are you SURE that the ratchet is worn out? Often a good cleaning and oiling will work wonders in rejeuvenating an older ratchet that skips and slips. John
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