Circlip pliers?

[Waggles]

Hi all,

F1 rebuild progressing slowly, at least some bits are going back together now. thanks to this forum.

Am now at the point of stripping the brake master cylinder and need circlip pliers that are suitable. Brough a pair specially made for master cylinder use but they dont fit, before I take and angle grinder to them has anyone found a suitable pair on the net anywhere? or is the special tool available?

[Bryanj]

You can buy the genuine Honda tool but its no easier with that

[Waggles]

Oh dear!

OK sacrifice virgin, pour libation of Brown ale and out with the angle grinder then.

[Bryanj]

Here is what i did when i had 8 to strip.

If piston is sticky push all the way down

remove floppy boot and wire circlip

use a cutting torch not set for cutting to play down inside hole (ordinary plumbers torch blows out trying this) to warm up everything and destroy the crap/rust/alloy corrosion down the hole.

spray liberaly with WD40 whilst still warm---CAREFULL WITH THE TORCH AS THE VAPOUR IS VERY FLAMMABLE!!!

the circlip should now be relatively free to lever out carefully

[K2-K6]

If there is any way you can engage just one of the holes in the circlip and move it towards the other hole then the clip usually starts to rotate in it's groove and helps clean it out and free up the whole clip before you attempt to remove it, if that makes sense.

[Waggles]

Thanks guys,

Yes, that makes sense K2.

My piston is perfectly free, I am only stripping to ensure all is OK and coz I don't trust 34 year old brake seals! I have the rubber boot off OK ( didn't see a wire circlip on that incidentally? ) and have cleaned the crud away so circlip is visible. My problem is no normal circlip pliers will reach. I have a set with replaceable tips, I could make some 'long reach tips' for that pair, or I bought a 90 degree long reach pair made for master cylinders but these have quite thick arms that mean they both catch on the piston end and make it impossible to see if you have engaged or not. I could grind the arms down a bit on these as an alternative. Or maybe just make a tool from an old screwdriver to engage a single hole and lever it ( I have a replacement obviously and refitting will be a breeze comparitively ) What did you lever yours out with Bryan?

[Spitfire]

I had to custom fit my circlip pliers with a file, takes 2 mins and works perfect.

Cheers

Den

[Bryanj]

I made sure the circlip rotated with a scriber and then, luckily, most of the pistons stuck down leaving room for circlip pliers. If not get somebody else to push the piston all the way in with a small dia electrical screwdriver or some such

[Waggles]

OK thanks guys, will give it a bash at the weekend

[Yoshi823]

I use a pair of modified needle nose pliers...work a treat.

[Waggles]

An update on this just in case it helps someone else.

I struggled and struggled and got nowhere. I had read that the circlip tends to sit back in the groove partially obscuring the holes, this seemed to be my problem but I couldn't get pliers intothe holes. Now the observant among you will see a clue above, I didn't see a wire circlip, the rubber boot just fell apart and guess what? the wire circlip was still down there, all rusty an masquerading as part of the cylinder! ( No my eyes are not that good either ) once I had levered that out the troublesome cirlip came out easily!

[Seamus]

Just had to do a master cylinder. A bit fiddly to say the least. You really need 3 hands.

Anyway, to free up the circlip, I removed the boot and ring, then cleaned out as much muck as possible. Then soaked the thing in coke for a couple of hours. The circlip was then free to rotate.

Improvised using a vice, a screwdriver and a brush to hold down the piston to allow access to the circlip. This allowed the use of both hands to remove the clip. Note bits of wood to prevent damage to the master cylinder. I inserted the lever bolt for use as a fulcrum, it seemed easier to use a lever acting from the side as it did not block the light. Hope this is of some use.

The rest was fairly straight forward