What circlip pliers should we buy?

My roommate has gone through four tip sets and two pairs of snap ring pliers trying to get out a circlip. The circlip is about 30mm, and it's pretty gnarly. Any thoughts?

Hammer and chisel? When my Snap-On pliers won't work, I get the persuader out.

OTC ones with the locks are what I use on big stuff.

Holes in the snap ring? Use a centerpunch and hammer in the holes to break it loose from the groove- try to rotate it. If its wedged in by whatever its retaining, can the retained thing be pushed in a bit to take some of the stress off?

Don't buy a kit with removeable tips, and even the ones that are reversable for inside/outside snap rings are not as good as a dedicated set of the correct size, and even those will break if the ring is jammed in the groove. ( See paragraph 1)

Let me guess, rusty driveshaft U joint? Get out the acetylene torch, fine tip, heat the clip glowing and roll it out of the groove with a screwdriver/pliers.

Although I have never tried it, I was once told to buy a cheap set of channel lock pliers, drill a hole in each jaw and hammer appropriately sized pins in.

Thus when you gripped the pliers, the pins would be brought closer. Two hands on the pliers would be needed to separate for an external clip.

This would be awkward in fitting in certain spots, but would be very rugged.

I personally had luck being diligent about getting the rust out with wire brushes and used lots of penetrating oil. There shouldn't be too much load on decent quality snap ring pliers, so something is binding the ring.

Streetwiseguy wrote: Holes in the snap ring? Use a centerpunch and hammer in the holes to break it loose from the groove- try to rotate it. If its wedged in by whatever its retaining, can the retained thing be pushed in a bit to take some of the stress off? Don't buy a kit with removeable tips, and even the ones that are reversable for inside/outside snap rings are not as good as a dedicated set of the correct size, and even those will break if the ring is jammed in the groove. ( See paragraph 1)

^This^

Hose it down w/ Kroil, run a scraper around the interface of the circlip and the ID it's in, then use a punch and hammer on the end that ~loosens~ it when you push on it, to loosen and rotate the circlip.

Once it's free, any decent plier will collapse it enough to get it out.

If you have a new one, grind a pin onto the end of a long punch or piece of rod and use that to pry one end out of the groove. Have a thin screwdriver ready to go behind it. Then work it out.

The worst is the circlip that holds the clutch loading ramp on my the my b last and my moms sporty. The problem is the squeeze/spreader bars aren't large enough to completely fill the hole so the damn thing pops off. Oh thanks for reminding me of that job. The trick was to squeeze the sucker in and use a 90* pick to pull the clip out, easier said then done as there isn't much room to work. I don't really like the removable tip ones either, get the job done for the most part. I'd like a set of dedicated ones but I can't justify buying them.

Daryn, that was the job, but on a Yamaha triple.