Help restoring Stanley 2101A brace

[Anthony Kaye]

Hello, everyone.

I recently managed to find a 10” Stanley 2101A brace -- the Bell Labs model (eBay) -- and I’m in the middle of trying to restore it so it will work properly. I was able to disassemble the head, clean it out, repack the bearings in fresh grease, and put everything back together -- that part now works great.


The next part is the shell — the part that holds the jaws that hold the auger bits. I unscrewed it all the way and took the end cap off. Inside is a little spring clip that’s holding the cone-shaped race and the ball bearings. I cannot get the spring clip out. I’ve tried everything I can think of, and all it does is laugh at me. I’ve cleaned a lot of the outside-ish parts, and things certainly move better (they were frozen when I got it), but given the condition of the ball bearings in the head, these probably need attention, too, so I don’t want to give up on this part.

The ratchet mechanism will be the last major part to address, and I suspect it’s going to be a real nightmare inside. But before I get to that, does anyone have any suggestions about getting that little spring clip out?

Thanks!

[Jim Koepke]

Hi Anthony and welcome to the creek.

You likely should take a visit to George's Basement > https://www.georgesbasement.com/fs2101a.htm

That should get you where you want to be.

jtk

[Anthony Kaye]

Hi Anthony and welcome to the creek.

You likely should take a visit to George's Basement > https://www.georgesbasement.com/fs2101a.htm

That should get you where you want to be.

jtk

This is an excellent page, but unfortunately, I don't have the option of drilling mine out...

Any other thoughts?


Cheers,


Anthony

[Jim Koepke]

My luck has usually been pretty good getting springs like this out with a couple small screwdrivers, a vise, a couple of metal picks or hooks and a lot of patience.

jtk