An apparatus for inserting electronic components into a printed circuit board including (a) chucking means for holding a pair of lead wires of an electronic component, which chuck opens and closes in a direction perpendicular to a plane including the axes of the pair of lead wires; with a distance identical to that between the lead wire inserting holes in the printed circuit board; (b) means for inserting thus held lead wires into a corresponding pair of lead wire inserting holes; and (c) means for applying a clinching treatment to the inserted lead wires protruding from the back side of the printed circuited board, whereby an electronic component is, regardless of the size of the inter-lead-wire distance, held by a chuck such that one of the lead wires is located at a certain preset base position biased to either side of the chucking surface of the chuck, and the printed circuit board and the chuck are relatively positioned when the lead wires held by the chuck are about to be inserted, and such that the components, when the lead wires have been inserted, are positioned beside the side edge of the chuck against which the component is biased.