Adjustable wrench

A wrench having a wrenching configuration adjsustable to match a wrenching dimension of any selected one of a variety of fastener elements having wrenching configurations of different wrenching dimensions, said wrench comprising:

• a wrench head having a cavity therein and opposite side walls, the cavity including opposite sides and a rear wall extending transverse to the opposite sides of the cavity, and the opposite side walls enclosing the opposite sides of the cavity;
• opposed jaws on the wrenching head opposite the rear wall of the cavity and having wrenching faces, at least one of said opposed jaws being mounted upon the wrenching head for sliding movement toward and away from another of the opposed jaws for respectively decreasing and increasing the spacing between the wrenching faces of the opposed jaws;
• biasing means continuously biasing the one said jaw in the direction away from the other said jaw;
• locking means carried by the wrenching head for looking one said jaw against the bias of the biasing means upon movement of the one said jaw in the direction toward the other said jaw to match the spacing between said wrenching faces with one of said different wrenching dimensions, the locking means including a ratchet carried by the one said jaw and having a plurality of ratchet teeth lying within the cavity in the wrenching head and enclosed between said opposite side walls thereof, a pawl within the cavity in the wrenching head and enclosed between said opposite side walls thereof, pawl mounting means monting the pawl in the wrenching head for movement confined to lateral and pivotal movement relative to the ratchet and having a plurality of pawl teeth complementary to the ratchet teeth such that the pawl teeth and the ratchet teeth define fixed increments of spacing between the wrenching faces, said lateral and pivotal movement of the pawl being in directions essentially normal to the direction of the sliding movement of said one of the opposed jaws so as to be toward and away from the ratchet for corresponding engagement and release of the pawl from the ratchet, and pawl biasing means biasing the pawl teeth laterally into full engagement with at least some of the ratchet teeth;
• and
• release means on the wrenching head for selectivey releasing the locking means, the release means including an actuator member accessible from outside of the cavity for deliberate selective movement to move the pawl laterally and pivotally against the bias of the pawl biasing means and selectively release the pawl teeth from engagement with the ratchet teeth to permit movement of the one said jaw in the direction away from the other said jaw in response to the biasing means.