Followed D. Crow's advice and took one apart today. It's pretty easy.

1. Remove the pin at the end of the bar. It's a roll pin and if you
grip it with a pair of pliers and twist it so the roll tightens, you
can pull it out while twisting.

2. Pull the handle off the end of the bar.

3. Snap a side cover off. It's a press fit with plastic pins and comes
straight out with minimal prying (like a finger nail).

4. What I call the "action bar" is held in place by a mid-size coil
spring. It's the metal thingy that the main clamp bar goes through.
You can use pliers or your fingers to squeeze the spring together a
bit and the action bar just comes out. Note which side of the action
bar faces aft, away from the squeeze grip when you pull it. You might
even want to mark it (scratch the darn thing on the rear side).

5. If you look closelt at the rectangular notch in the action bar
you'll see that the bottom and top of the rectanglar notch are
actually rounded to fit the clamp bar, sorta like the ends of a
router-cut mortise. They also appear to be slightly angled towards the
"front" (where the squeeze grip is). I cleaned up the inside of these
rounded edges with a round needle file, trying to leave a sharp adge
at the forward face of the actio bar. Before reinserting the action
bar, I stretched the coil spring a bit.

6. Re-assembly is the reverse except you can tap the roll pin back in
over a partially opened vise or a pin anvil.

My clamp seems to work now, doesn't slip. For how long? We'll see.

Regards.

Tom

Top posted yada, yada ....




On Fri, 30 Dec 2005 16:09:34 -0500, "Norman D. Crow"
wrote:


"Paul Stewart" wrote in message
...
Anyone know how or if Irwin Quick Grip clamps can be adjusted or restored
to
fix them from slipping when pulling the handle/trigger to tighten the
clamp?

SNIP


I've got a pair of the 12" Irwins, and one of them started doing the same
thing(if I understand correctly, when you squeeze the handle to tighten the
clamp it slips). I figured out how to get the handle apart and reversed the
metal piece/pieces that actually grip the bar to tighten the clamp. I'm not
sure if I had to remove the pin and take the assembly off the bar or not,
but probably. Clamp works fine now.