master cylinder circlip

[MIKE550/4]

been dreading doing this

firstly had to buy a scond hand one as wrong m/c on bike, bought from second hand from a breakers and came up against a problem,
well two

firstly what tool do you need to get to this circlip ( circlip pliers i have dont have the reach

secondly hole has broke off on one side of circlip before i even start

any ideas to get this clip out ?

[matthewmosse]

  I dread it so much I just troll off to the shed for a spare brake assembly from the spares pile, sorry, not much help to you but I'm sure someone usefull will offer some advice. On circlip pliers genrally I've found the 'proper' ones are too coarse for most bike jobs and a set of draper, changeable head ones to be most use on my bikes, failing that a pair of small screwdrivers, use one to hold the snapped end still/ stop it rotating, second one to pry the other end out of it's slot, if a third hand is available, then wedge a third small screwdriver in behind the circlip once it starts to come clear of the groove, or try to get it to twist out of the groove. A swear box to drop in

[MIKE550/4]

seems impossible, got all the bits i need to restore the m/c

cant quite get to the circlip with pliers i have , plus with one end being broke not sure on how to get out, hope fully some one must have came up against this problem before and has a magic idea

[matthewmosse]

tried a dremel abrasive bit to very very carefully thin the circlip opposite the open end and then collapse the circlip? just a thought, it's a while since I even looked at this job so I cannt recall how much access there is, although as I recall it was poor. If you tried this you'd have to be very thourough in cleaning everything afterwards.

[MIKE550/4]

might try that later ...

because of how tight it is in there it seems i need a very long thin set of circlip pliers with like a needle on the end,

going to look on e bay etc to see what tools there are, must be something out there to make this easier ... will see what some of the other guys on here say , not giving up yet matthew

[hector2800]

From memory I have used something  like an old Dart which has a strong point on it to basically twist the damn circlip out of its groove .I agree about the swearbox it can take hours for a bloody little thing.

[MIKE550/4]

well what can i say after about the 80th time to practise this it was easy in the end 

hope i never have to do this again, anyone doing this good luck dreading putting it back in now

[Bryanj]

reassembly is p easy compared to getting that clip out!!!

[MIKE550/4]

following on from this, the m/c needs painted first

any special paint needed for this or more hard wearing paint that anyone could recommend,

or will  sanding, primering, painting and i think laquer if that would hold up

brake fluid is nasty,

[Bryanj]

Mask all the important bits and powder coat

[SteveD CB500K0]

Brake fluid will kill almost all paints.

As Bryan says - powdercoat.