Patent ID: 8516928

Claim:
A ratchet wrench comprising: a body including a head having an inner periphery defining a first compartment, with a second compartment defined in the inner periphery of the head and including a wall, with the head including a control groove in communication with the second compartment; a drive member rotatably received in the first compartment of the head, with the drive member including an annular toothed portion formed on an outer periphery thereof, with the drive member adapted to drive a fastener to rotate; a pawl device mounted in the second compartment of the head, with the pawl device selectively engageable with the drive member in either of first and second engagement relations corresponding to first and second driving directions of the ratchet wrench driving the fastener, with the pawl device including first and second pawls and an elastic element mounted between the first and second pawls, with the elastic element biasing the first and second pawls away from each other, with the first pawl including a first toothed section, with the first toothed section engageable with the toothed portion of the drive member under bias of the elastic element, with the second pawl including a second toothed section, with the second toothed section engageable with the toothed portion of the drive member under the bias of the elastic element, with the pawl device movable between a stable state in which the first and second toothed sections of the first and second pawls are disengageable from the toothed portion of the drive member and a jammed state in which the first and second toothed sections of the first and second pawls jam between the toothed portion of the drive member and the wall of the second compartment, wherein two closest teeth respectively of the first and second toothed sections have a safety spacing therebetween when the pawl device is in the stable state, and wherein the two closest teeth respectively of the first and second toothed sections have a jam spacing therebetween when the pawl device is in the jammed state; a switch pivotably mounted in the control groove and operatively connected to the pawl device, with the switch controlling the pawl device to be in one of the first and second engagement relations with the drive member; and a limiting member comprising a loop being connected between the first and second pawls, with the limiting member maintaining the two closest teeth respectively of the first and second toothed sections to be in a restraining spacing, with the restraining spacing smaller than the jam spacing, preventing the pawl device from the jammed state.