Patent ID: 8650991

Claim:
A ratchet wrench comprising: an elongated handle; a wrench head integrally formed with the handle and comprising a first cavity and a second cavity communicating therewith; a drive gear and socket combination rotatable disposed in the first cavity and comprising surface teeth; a reversing pawl comprising pawl teeth on one surface, the pawl teeth meshed with the teeth of the drive gear and socket; a pivotal unit pivotably disposed in the second cavity, the pivotal unit urging against the other surface of the reversing pawl and being adapted to reciprocally pivot about the reversing pawl; a reversing button assembly moveably disposed on the wrench head and aligned with an axial direction of the handle; and a cam mechanism disposed between the reversing button assembly and the pivotal unit and comprising a blind hole in the pivotal unit; wherein the reversing button assembly is adapted to manually move along a straight line to activate the pivotal unit which pivots the reversing pawl so as to permit the drive gear and socket combination to rotate clockwise or counterclockwise; wherein the blind hole is parallel to a pivot axis of the pivotal unit and adapted to retain the reversing button assembly so that the movement of the reversing button assembly activates the cam mechanism to activate the pivotal unit which pivots the reversing pawl so as to permit the drive gear and socket combination to rotate clockwise or counterclockwise; and wherein the cam mechanism further comprises a follower member including a downward peg retained in the blind hole and urging against an inner surface of the blind hole so that the movement of the reversing button assembly activates the cam mechanism to activate the pivotal unit which pivots the reversing pawl so as to permit the drive gear and socket combination to rotate clockwise or counterclockwise.