Got my ratchet unstuck from that gap by the engine mount - sharing what worked

Been there with mine, except mine got wedged between the block and the inner frame rail while doing a water pump on my older Silverado. Spent what felt like an hour yanking on it before I stopped and actually looked at what was catching. Turned out the head was cocked sideways and the socket was the widest part of the whole setup, so it acted like a barb every time I pulled. The trick that saved me was a plain piece of 2x4. I wedged it against the rail and levered the ratchet body sideways just enough to get the head square with the socket, then it slid out like nothing. Sometimes you need a second lever point instead of more pull strength. I'd also second the battery thing. Mine lives with a compact 2.0 pack on it and even that was the difference between jamming and clearing the edge. The bigger packs add real width on those tools.

One habit I picked up after that job: before I stick a power ratchet into a tight spot anymore, I pull the socket off first and run the bolt down loose with a short wrench, then just use the ratchet for the final spins where it has room. Slower but I haven't wedged one since.

Mine jammed in almost the same way doing a tensioner swap on my 4Runner, except pulling the socket never worked for me because the head itself was what bound up. What got it out was a long flathead screwdriver. I slipped the tip into the gap next to the mount and used it like a lever to spread the opening a hair, and the head came free as soon as the squeeze let off. Snapped the tip off the screwdriver doing it, but it was a dollar store one so I was not heartbroken about it.

These days I mostly stopped bringing the electric ratchet into tight pockets in the first place. I keep an old 3/8 hand ratchet with a short handle just for bolts in cramped areas, and if a bolt really needs power I'll run it most of the way in with the electric one from a better angle, then swap to the hand tool for the last turn or two. Slower, but nothing has gotten stuck on me since I started doing that. One other trick that has saved me a couple times is tying a loop of string around the tool body before it goes into a tight spot. Feels silly, but if it seizes up you can pull it back out along the same line it went in instead of yanking against the angle and making it worse.

Reading this made me wince because I did basially the same thing last month, except mine got stuck reaching a bolt behind the alternator bracket thing. What I kept wondering is why I couldn't just press the little button and run the ratchet backwards while it was stuck, so the bolt spins out and then the socket comes off the bolt and everything gets smaller. Is that a bad idea, like would it mess up the tool somehow? I ended up pulling the battery off like you said and wiggling it out, but I never tried the backwards thing because I got scared of stripping somethig.

Gotta push back on the 2x4 thing though. Levering sideways on the body of one of those M12s puts all that force right on the plastic housing and the little neck where the head meets the motor. I did something similar prying against a strut tower once and the housing cracked at the seam, tool was done. If the head is square with the socket it shoud pull straight out anyway, and if it won't, the head is still twisted and prying just loads up a jammed tool. Rotate the head flat first, then pull. No prying needed in my expirience.

The thing that saved me on a similar jam was pushing the tool IN instead of pulling. Sounds backwards, but mine was tilted in the gap and every tug on it wedged it harder. I gave it a light push maybe a half inch deeper, wich let the head straighten out in the opening, and then it slid right out. Only took me about 40 minutes of swearing on that job to figure out pulling was the problem. Might also be worth looking at the socket itself next time. A standard chrome socket adds way more width than one of the thin wall ones, and in a pinchy gap that little difference is the whole game.

Update: tried the backwards-run trick someone brought up and it acutally spun the fastener out while the head was still jammed, which saved me a headache. Still stuck on the binding part though, the head grabs no matter what angle I try. Question for the guy who used a flathead as a lever, did you ever worry about spreading the mount gap and bending the bracket?