Disassembly of Front Master Cylinder Denied

[Phantom Duck]

Well I've bought a good OEM repair kit for the front master cylinder and I bought the fancy pliers to pull the circlip. Is here any trick to this? So far the circlip has defied all attempts.

[SVSooke]

Try putting some penetrating oil (not WD40) on it.They can be a bit hard to get out.

[Agemax]

clean all the crap out from around the circlip area, when the clip is out give the piston a good tug

[tkent02]

Sometimes long needle nose pliers with the tips ground into a pin work a lot better than the fancy circlip pliers.

[antlese]

Sometimes long needle nose pliers with the tips ground into a pin work a lot better than the fancy circlip pliers.

I'm currently trying to get the C-clip out of my front master cylinder as well. The new circlip pliers that I just purchased don't seem to be long enough to get in there. I was going to grind down 2 nails and try getting those into the c-clip holes. If that fails, I may go with your suggestion of grinding down my needle nose pliers. Good suggesion!

[spyug]

Grinding the tips of needlenose pliers often works but you need slim needlenose pliers to begin with. Often the jaws are too thick to allow the tips to get into the smaller deeper holes.

If you have one locally, Princess Auto in Canada or Harbour Freight in the US have a variety of needle nose thin jawed circlip pliers that are relatively in expensive.

In a pinch, if you have jeweller's screw drivers, you can use two little guys or one screw driver and a thin nail. Hold one hole on the clip then use the screw driver to move the other side inward. A fiddly two handed process but it will work.

As mentioned a good shot of penetrating fluid also helps and sometimes a tap on the clip with a screw driver will loosen things up.

Good luck with it.

[bwringer]

It's not clear exactly what your problem is, but if you're having trouble getting a grip on the circlip, sometimes you have to clean up the pins at the tips of the circlip pliers with a small file. A little bit of paint or casting flash can keep them from engaging with the holes in the clip.

You cannot reach the clips in master cylinders or carb slides with conventional circlip pliers -- you must have the long-nose type.

Like these:


You can sometimes reach these with needlenose pliers with the tips ground down, but you need to start with a VERY long and VERY narrow set of small pliers. A set of cheapos works fine. It takes a steady hand to grind and file the tips into small enough pins, but this is what lots of people use.

[allojohn]

I'm currently trying to get the C-clip out of my front master cylinder as well. The new circlip pliers that I just purchased don't seem to be long enough to get in there. I was going to grind down 2 nails and try getting those into the c-clip holes. If that fails, I may go with your suggestion of grinding down my needle nose pliers. Good suggesion!

Push the piston down - it's tricky while maneuvering the pliers but gives you more reach.

[Phantom Duck]

No Longer Denied

Thanks guys. A couple of days soaking in PB and the fancy pliers worked.

[GreaseMonkey]

Good snap-ring or C-clip pliers are a HUGE advantage over the cheap ones you can buy at most hardware stores. Knipex snap-ring pliers are head and shoulders above everything else I've ever tried.