Snap ring pliers are used to install and remove circlips, which hold bearings or other assembly elements. They have two arms with small round tips that fit into the holes of the snap ring. The pliers can either pull or push the snap ring, and can be used to install the snap ring on the outside of an assembly.
Snap ring pliers are a tool designed to install and remove snap rings, which are small metal rings that hold a bearing or other assembly element by inserting them into a machined groove. Circlips are common in car engine parts, as well as in the shock absorbers and forks of motorcycles and bicycles. While circlip pliers aren’t a tool that will be used often, they are an important addition to a toolbox because a circlip is difficult or impossible to remove or install without them.
The tool itself looks like a regular set of pliers in many ways. Circlip pliers have two arms that act as handles and are attached at a pivot point near the tool head. Snap ring pliers have two arms at the tip – these little arms are bent at a ninety degree angle and each have a small round tip that will fit into the small round holes on the snap ring. Snap ring pliers are sometimes spring loaded to help retract the tool, and most circlip pliers feature a reversible head so the pliers can either pull the snap ring into one position or push it out. external to another location.
The snap ring is a circular metal ring that snaps at one point on the circle. At the break, two small circles are bored at the ends. This is where the heads of the snap ring pliers will grip the snap ring. Once the circlip pliers heads have been inserted into the holes in the circlip, the user can squeeze the grips of the pliers, which in turn will move the heads in or out, depending on the reversible head position. To remove the snap rings, the pliers heads must move inward to reduce the diameter of the snap ring. In this way, the snap ring can be pulled out of the machined groove and released from the assembly.
To install a snap ring on the outside of an assembly instead of the inside as described above, the head of the snap ring pliers must be reversed so that the heads push the snap ring holes outward. This makes the snap ring diameter larger so it can be placed outside of an assembly. Once the snap ring is in place, the gripper handles can be released and the snap ring itself will relax into a smaller diameter, settling into the groove where it should sit.
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