T-20 transmision shaft retainer

[Petestuth]

I am rebuilding a t-20 transmision and having trouble getting the shaft retainer c-clip off! It is a c- clip w/o holes for snap ring pliers. It wraps around about 7/8ths of the shaft! Looking for any tricks to get it off! It is the clip inside by the bearing!

[George]

I think the best way to get at it is to remove the output shaft (and the input shaft along with it) so that you can get at the clip without the case getting in the way.

[Mike]

There's a set of pliers with a knurled flat surface on the end that work really well for those. Check out the third page of the T20 rebuild article: Rebuild your T20 - Page 3 and you can see a picture. There are other pictures further in the how-to that may give you a better view of the pliers.

[hydromike]

There are other pictures...

For instance:

[Petestuth]

The ring lock pliers is what I was looking for! Thanks for the help!

[phabib]

I've had a pair of the ring pliers with the flat external knurled surface in my toolbox for 20+ years and I still had trouble with that clip. My pliers were just too big to get a good grip on the clip with the teeth of the shaft in the way. I wound up getting a lock ring plier made by Channelock from Home Depot yesterday that did the job in only about 3 tries. They switch from internal to external lockrings with a lever and come with a few different tips for different lock ring types. Cost about $22.