How to remove and replace a snap ring in a FWD car

How to remove and replace a snap ring in a FWD car.

I hit a curb with my car and broke in half the right half-axle, broke a
big chunk out of the RF rim and a piece the size of a tea-cup saucer
from the tire too, cracked my lower suspension arm, and severed the
right ball joint (2000 Toyota Solara, only has a lower ball joint. I'm
not sure how many cars this story covers.

I knew about the snap ring from the shop manual, but the Toyota shop
manuals (Factory Service Manuals some call them) are not great, and
even finding the snap ring was hard.

Moderately hard to remove, and I figured I wouldn't replace it myself,
but I'd take it to a repair shop after I did most of the worlk. I
thought the axle lock bolt would hoid the axle in place, but apparently
all that does is keep the mid-car bearing from spinning

Because when I tightened the big nut on the end of the axle, it sucked
the shaft into the hub and pulled it out of the transmission. I guess
the snap ring is essential. Oh well. Try again.


The snap ring is made of spring steel. The cross section is about 1/8"
square, and the whole thing is shaped like a like a 2 inch circle, with
the part from 8 to 10 o'clock missing. Missing from the circle, but
1/2" at each end, 8 and 10, is bent out at a 90^ angle,

All of the metal but these two end pieces expands into a groove to keep
the axle in place, and the two 1/2" ends are there to grab and move, to
get the ring in or out.

The Toyota shop manual said to use pliers. Maybe water-pump pliers,
would do it but there is no room for pliers. Only room for one finger
at a time.

A web page guy said he used a screwdriver, stuck it in the right angle
at the 8 o'clock end and pushed up .

Imagine my pleasure when I found in my drawer something I'd forgotten I
had, a full-size screwdriver with the middle third of the tip cut back
1/8", perfect for holding the ring in place, I thought.
__ __
Shaped like } |__| |
| |

But it didn't work Nor did a plain flat blade screwdriver. It
slipped away and went boing. (Stil surrounding the axle so it couldn't
go far. (Though when I first took it off it took me 5 minutes to find
it.)

My finger wasn't strong enough to push up from the bottom and the other
finger wasn't strong enough to push down from the top.

I thought I'd have to have the car towed to a shop. What an
embarrassing defeat that would be.


Instead, I got some wire, turned out to be 16" of 14-gauge stranded
wire. Tied it into a circle wth a square knot. Put the bottom of the
ring in place in the groove and hooked the wire to the top part, the
right angle at 10 o'clock. . The wire turned out to be too long so I
hooked it to vice-grips and wrapped it around the vice-grips and pulled
down and it went in on the first try.

Interesting part has just ended.



I should add that Autozone has lent me 100's of dollars of tools, with
no big rush to return them, for free. They deserve a plug for that.**

Torque wrench up to 300 pounds, 30" socket for axle nut (they have other
sizes); 5-pound slide-hammer, special attachment for pulling on the
tulip that is half-way down the axle (to get the axle out) , tie-rod end
remover (which I didn't need after all)

If you plan to do this and you havent' seen it done, you should get
help first. Watch the video online (the one I saw wasn't so good,
skipped a lot of detail); read instructions, with pictures. The one I
read had torque values. You probably won't have a shop manual.
Chilton's might have a little bit.

**And all I really bought from Autozone was the axle, for 52 dollars,
plus a 50 dollar core deposit. That's about the same as online, except
online, you'd have to ship the old axle back. What a pain, plus the
shipping chage. I'd already bought from non-consumer style autoparts
store the ball joint, lower suspension arm. and brake pads. They seem
to have sold me the wrong brake pads, too thick, even though a second
guy checked today and said they were the right ones. I'll have to buy
them at another store and show them what the other store sells.

The refurbished rim I bought online from some hubcap place in the
midwest. I should have called Hubcap City in Baltmore, but I've driven
by there and they're gone. (It turns out they have branches now and
only closed that one.)

Pep Boys online says it has loaner tools but doesn't go into much
detail. Maybe they really do. It appears that if you buy from
autozone any of the tools that they lend, you may get one that's been
lent out more than once and has scratches etc. and you're suppopsed to
accept that. I think that's how it works and I think that's fair. So
there's a list, spread out over 10 or 20 webpages, by category, or you
can look up a tool and in the details it says if it "may be used because
it's used in the tool loan proram." For example, they have at the
stores or at the warehouse about 10 different torque wrenches, but only
two are in the loaner program (the two most people would want to use,
btw),

BTW, I had to pay 100 dollars for the torque wrench, but they'll give it
back to me when I return it, maybe tomorrow. There is a time limit,
after which you own it, but it's 30 days or more. There seems to be
no time limit on returning a core (other than the vendor going out of
business, I'm sure),


I also bought from HD a couple 1/2" sockets. I didn't know until I was
almost done that a friend has a set of 1" sockets, although I forgot to
ask if they were metric. Still, he probably has a 1 to 1/2" adapater.

I have a puny set of 3/8" socket wrenches, and some extra deep and
regular sockets from goold old HF.

On Tue, 30 Sep 2014 23:09:50 -0400, micky >
wrote:

>
>Torque wrench up to 300 pounds, 30" socket for axle nut (they have other

not 30 inches. 30mm.

I'd like to see the monster truck with a 30" nut holding on the axle.

>sizes); 5-pound slide-hammer, special attachment for pulling on the
>tulip that is half-way down the axle (to get the axle out) , tie-rod end
>remover (which I didn't need after all)

"micky" > wrote in message
...

> How to remove and replace a snap ring in a FWD car.
> . . .
> The Toyota shop manual said to use pliers. Maybe water-pump pliers,
> would do it but there is no room for pliers. Only room for one finger
> at a time. . . .

The OP misunderstands "pliers." Specialized tool shops sell special
pliers for removal and replacement of snap rings (that are useless
for other purposes because of the specialized shape of the jaws.)
--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)

> I hit a curb with my car and broke in half the right half-axle, broke a
> big chunk out of the RF rim and a piece the size of a tea-cup saucer
> from the tire too, cracked my lower suspension arm, and severed the
> right ball joint (2000 Toyota Solara, only has a lower ball joint. I'm
> not sure how many cars this story covers.

If you hit the curb hard enough to break an axle and crack a suspension
arm, I would be concerned about damage to the body. It may not be visible
to the naked eye, but the geometry could be pushed out of spec, perhaps to
the point of being dangerous. You may want to have a body shop check out
the body measurements.

At the very least, you should get an alignment after you get things back
together.

> How to remove and replace a snap ring in a FWD car.

They sell special "snap ring pliers" for those. You should be able to find
them anwhere that sells tools, Sears, auto parts stores, etc.

There are two different kinds of snap rings.

The inner style fits inside an opening (such as a wheel hub) and needs to
be squeezed to remove. These have little holes on the open ends that the
tips on the pliers fit into.

The outer style fits over an object (such as a suspension strut) and needs
to be expanded to remove.

These require two different kinds of snap ring pliers. They do make pliers
that can adapt to either kind of ring, but I prefer the individual pliers
made for each ring type.

Anthony Watson
www.mountainsoftware.com
www.watsondiy.com

"Don Phillipson" > wrote in :

> "micky" > wrote in message
> ...
>
>> How to remove and replace a snap ring in a FWD car.
>> . . .
>> The Toyota shop manual said to use pliers. Maybe water-pump pliers,
>> would do it but there is no room for pliers. Only room for one finger
>> at a time. . . .
>
> The OP misunderstands "pliers."


That's just what I was thinking.

He needs the kind with a little cup on the ends, and that
EXPAND when you squeeze the handle.


> Specialized tool shops sell special
> pliers for removal and replacement of snap rings (that are useless
> for other purposes because of the specialized shape of the jaws.)


Something like the first few in this Google Images search,
but with bent jaws.
https://www.google.com/search?q=snap...35%3B225%3B169



--
Tegger

Tegger > wrote in
:

> "Don Phillipson" > wrote in
> :
>
>> "micky" > wrote in message
>> ...
>>
>>> How to remove and replace a snap ring in a FWD car.
>>> . . .
>>> The Toyota shop manual said to use pliers. Maybe water-pump pliers,
>>> would do it but there is no room for pliers. Only room for one
>>> finger at a time. . . .
>>
>> The OP misunderstands "pliers."
>
>
> That's just what I was thinking.
>
> He needs the kind with a little cup on the ends, and that
> EXPAND when you squeeze the handle.
>
>
>> Specialized tool shops sell special
>> pliers for removal and replacement of snap rings (that are useless
>> for other purposes because of the specialized shape of the jaws.)
>
>
> Something like the first few in this Google Images search,
> but with bent jaws.
> https://www.google.com/search?q=snap...&bih=1305&sour
> ce=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=iBYsVL_7JIicygTg2oCYBA&sq i=2&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAg#t
> bm=isch&q=pliers+mac+p35&facrc=_&imgdii=_&imgrc=eU NorAVfkqGHEM%253A%3Bp
> rApWLM0ZVJYjM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fthumbs3.ebaysta tic.com%252Fd%252Fl22
> 5%252Fm%252Fm_ZCmMxL4P6C5rhanWK0pgg.jpg%3Bhttp%253 A%252F%252Fwww.ebay.c
> om%252Fsch%252Fi.html%253F_kw%253Dpliers%252B35%3B 225%3B169
>
>
>


In case that URL is impossible to work with, just Google these terms:
pliers mac p35

That's the pair I've got. For use in the OP's situation, I'd need to
heat/bend/grind the jaws to suit the application, which I've done to create
numerous one-off specialized tools.

--
Tegger

On Tue, 30 Sep 2014 23:09:50 -0400, micky >
wrote:

>How to remove and replace a snap ring in a FWD car.
>
>I hit a curb with my car and broke in half the right half-axle, broke a
>big chunk out of the RF rim and a piece the size of a tea-cup saucer
>from the tire too, cracked my lower suspension arm, and severed the
>right ball joint (2000 Toyota Solara, only has a lower ball joint. I'm
>not sure how many cars this story covers.
>
>I knew about the snap ring from the shop manual, but the Toyota shop
>manuals (Factory Service Manuals some call them) are not great, and
>even finding the snap ring was hard.
>
>Moderately hard to remove, and I figured I wouldn't replace it myself,
>but I'd take it to a repair shop after I did most of the worlk. I
>thought the axle lock bolt would hoid the axle in place, but apparently
>all that does is keep the mid-car bearing from spinning
>
>Because when I tightened the big nut on the end of the axle, it sucked
>the shaft into the hub and pulled it out of the transmission. I guess
>the snap ring is essential. Oh well. Try again.
>
>
>The snap ring is made of spring steel. The cross section is about 1/8"
>square, and the whole thing is shaped like a like a 2 inch circle, with
>the part from 8 to 10 o'clock missing. Missing from the circle, but
>1/2" at each end, 8 and 10, is bent out at a 90^ angle,
>
>All of the metal but these two end pieces expands into a groove to keep
>the axle in place, and the two 1/2" ends are there to grab and move, to
>get the ring in or out.
>
>The Toyota shop manual said to use pliers. Maybe water-pump pliers,
>would do it but there is no room for pliers. Only room for one finger
>at a time.
>
>A web page guy said he used a screwdriver, stuck it in the right angle
>at the 8 o'clock end and pushed up .
>
>Imagine my pleasure when I found in my drawer something I'd forgotten I
>had, a full-size screwdriver with the middle third of the tip cut back
>1/8", perfect for holding the ring in place, I thought.
> __ __
> Shaped like } |__| |
> | |
>
>But it didn't work Nor did a plain flat blade screwdriver. It
>slipped away and went boing. (Stil surrounding the axle so it couldn't
>go far. (Though when I first took it off it took me 5 minutes to find
>it.)
>
>My finger wasn't strong enough to push up from the bottom and the other
>finger wasn't strong enough to push down from the top.
>
>I thought I'd have to have the car towed to a shop. What an
>embarrassing defeat that would be.
>
>
>Instead, I got some wire, turned out to be 16" of 14-gauge stranded
>wire. Tied it into a circle wth a square knot. Put the bottom of the
>ring in place in the groove and hooked the wire to the top part, the
>right angle at 10 o'clock. . The wire turned out to be too long so I
>hooked it to vice-grips and wrapped it around the vice-grips and pulled
>down and it went in on the first try.
>
>Interesting part has just ended.
>
>
>
>I should add that Autozone has lent me 100's of dollars of tools, with
>no big rush to return them, for free. They deserve a plug for that.**
>
>Torque wrench up to 300 pounds, 30" socket for axle nut (they have other
>sizes); 5-pound slide-hammer, special attachment for pulling on the
>tulip that is half-way down the axle (to get the axle out) , tie-rod end
>remover (which I didn't need after all)
>
>If you plan to do this and you havent' seen it done, you should get
>help first. Watch the video online (the one I saw wasn't so good,
>skipped a lot of detail); read instructions, with pictures. The one I
>read had torque values. You probably won't have a shop manual.
>Chilton's might have a little bit.
>
>**And all I really bought from Autozone was the axle, for 52 dollars,
>plus a 50 dollar core deposit. That's about the same as online, except
>online, you'd have to ship the old axle back. What a pain, plus the
>shipping chage. I'd already bought from non-consumer style autoparts
>store the ball joint, lower suspension arm. and brake pads. They seem
>to have sold me the wrong brake pads, too thick, even though a second
>guy checked today and said they were the right ones. I'll have to buy
>them at another store and show them what the other store sells.
>
>The refurbished rim I bought online from some hubcap place in the
>midwest. I should have called Hubcap City in Baltmore, but I've driven
>by there and they're gone. (It turns out they have branches now and
>only closed that one.)
>
>Pep Boys online says it has loaner tools but doesn't go into much
>detail. Maybe they really do. It appears that if you buy from
>autozone any of the tools that they lend, you may get one that's been
>lent out more than once and has scratches etc. and you're suppopsed to
>accept that. I think that's how it works and I think that's fair. So
>there's a list, spread out over 10 or 20 webpages, by category, or you
>can look up a tool and in the details it says if it "may be used because
>it's used in the tool loan proram." For example, they have at the
>stores or at the warehouse about 10 different torque wrenches, but only
>two are in the loaner program (the two most people would want to use,
>btw),
>
>BTW, I had to pay 100 dollars for the torque wrench, but they'll give it
>back to me when I return it, maybe tomorrow. There is a time limit,
>after which you own it, but it's 30 days or more. There seems to be
>no time limit on returning a core (other than the vendor going out of
>business, I'm sure),
>
>
>I also bought from HD a couple 1/2" sockets. I didn't know until I was
>almost done that a friend has a set of 1" sockets, although I forgot to
>ask if they were metric. Still, he probably has a 1 to 1/2" adapater.
>
>I have a puny set of 3/8" socket wrenches, and some extra deep and
>regular sockets from goold old HF.


Just looked at your webpage/write up. Nice job.

On Wed, 1 Oct 2014 15:10:46 +0000 (UTC), Tegger >
wrote:

>Tegger > wrote in
:
>
>> "Don Phillipson" > wrote in
>> :
>>
>>> "micky" > wrote in message
>>> ...
>>>
>>>> How to remove and replace a snap ring in a FWD car.
>>>> . . .
>>>> The Toyota shop manual said to use pliers. Maybe water-pump pliers,
>>>> would do it but there is no room for pliers. Only room for one
>>>> finger at a time. . . .
>>>
>>> The OP misunderstands "pliers."

No. I know pliers includes lots of things. I own a set of small
snap-ring pliers, with several interchangeable ends and rearrangeable
jaws to either open or close when squeezed.

Toyota often provides to its mechanics special tools and they might here
too, but , but in scores, maybe a couple hundred, of times in the 600
page shop manual they use the term SST, and at the end of the sentence
again say SST and give one or more 10-digit numbers. I don't know what
SST stands for but it means a special Toyota tool. Here it says simply
"pliers".

>>
>> That's just what I was thinking.
>>
>> He needs the kind with a little cup on the ends, and that
>> EXPAND when you squeeze the handle.

I have seen pliers with a cup on the end, and I own small snap-ring
pliers that either expand or contract when you squeeze the handle, but
FTR in this case, they would have to "contract", squeeze together.

Pliers with cups like that might work if they were long enough, From
the side, the wheel well, I might be able to get access if they were 15
inches long.
>>
>>
>>> Specialized tool shops sell special
>>> pliers for removal and replacement of snap rings (that are useless
>>> for other purposes because of the specialized shape of the jaws.)

But I'm not going to buy special tools. The online guy did it with a
plain screwdriver, and the point of my OP was that I did it on the first
try with a loop of AWG 14 stranded wire, insulated. Most people have
that, or can tear apart a 12 gauge extension cord to get some wire if
they need to.

Removing it in the first place wasn't pretty but it only took 2 or 3
tries with a flat screwdiriver.

>>
>> Something like the first few in this Google Images search,
>> but with bent jaws.
>> https://www.google.com/search?q=snap...35%3B225%3B169
>>
>>
>>
>
>
>In case that URL is impossible to work with, just Google these terms:
>pliers mac p35
>
>That's the pair I've got. For use in the OP's situation, I'd need to
>heat/bend/grind the jaws to suit the application, which I've done to create
>numerous one-off specialized tools.

Here is a picture of some snap rings, but only the one on the left with
the visible extra 1/2" ends is clearly like mine. You can see how they
are at right angles to the places on the circle that they bend from.
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=...art=20&ndsp=12


http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=...start=0&ndsp=8

And looking for this I came across a picture of the 5-pound slide
hammer, with the special attachment for axle pulling, that Auto-Zone
lent me for free.
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=...tart=8&ndsp=12

On Wed, 1 Oct 2014 14:43:13 +0000 (UTC), HerHusband
> wrote:

>> I hit a curb with my car and broke in half the right half-axle, broke a
>> big chunk out of the RF rim and a piece the size of a tea-cup saucer
>> from the tire too, cracked my lower suspension arm, and severed the
>> right ball joint (2000 Toyota Solara, only has a lower ball joint. I'm
>> not sure how many cars this story covers.
>
>If you hit the curb hard enough to break an axle and crack a suspension
>arm, I would be concerned about damage to the body. It may not be visible
>to the naked eye, but the geometry could be pushed out of spec, perhaps to
>the point of being dangerous. You may want to have a body shop check out
>the body measurements.

Thanks for the suggestion. I did have frame damage one time in 1970,
when I lent my car and he ran a stop sign in a school zone (It was
summer but the school sign and the stop sign were still there.) and got
hit broadside. I could tell the frame was bent because the
positioning-pins for the convertible top no longer went right up to the
holes they fit into. They were about an inch off. In those days,
what I heard was that frames could not be reliably straightened, that
they would spring back, and indeed, my own car got normal again a year
or two later, and a couple years after that, went back to the way it was
after the accident. But it handled fine.
>
>At the very least, you should get an alignment after you get things back
>together.

I'll do that.
>
>> How to remove and replace a snap ring in a FWD car.
>
>They sell special "snap ring pliers" for those. You should be able to find
>them anwhere that sells tools, Sears, auto parts stores, etc.

No, like everyone else, you're assuming they have holes in the ends.

I should have said explicitly that they don't, but I was concentrating
on what they do.

Tegger is right about needing cup-end, but they are not common.
I've googled for "cup end" directly and if that is not the right name,
I looked at all the snap-ring pliers that Grainger sells, Autozone (a
lot more than are in the store). I should try Snap-On and I forget the
other big name in auto tools. None at Snap-on afaict.



I still have to finish the brake job. I"ll try to see if, with the
proper pliers if they make them I could have used cup-end pliers from
the side, the wheel well. But I doubt it. The "tulip" is in the way,
so I can only see the ring from an angle, and the pliers would have to
15 to 18" long.

Length would not be a problem if they made pliers I could use from
underneath, shaped like an F, where the squeezing was at the bottom and
the two jaws were the horizontal parts of the F. They could make such
things, but I don't think they do. Since the ends of the snap ring
were at 8 and 10, the pliers would come up along side the drive shaft,
and the cup would hold the ends of the ring.

They do make a socket ratchet where one turns the socket by squeezing
the handles at the end, for places where there is no room to move the
whole wrench.


>There are two different kinds of snap rings.
>
>The inner style fits inside an opening (such as a wheel hub) and needs to
>be squeezed to remove. These have little holes on the open ends that the
>tips on the pliers fit into.
>
>The outer style fits over an object (such as a suspension strut) and needs
>to be expanded to remove.
>
>These require two different kinds of snap ring pliers. They do make pliers
>that can adapt to either kind of ring, but I prefer the individual pliers
>made for each ring type.
>
>Anthony Watson
>www.mountainsoftware.com
>www.watsondiy.com

On Wed, 01 Oct 2014 11:48:58 -0700, Ashton Crusher >
wrote:

>On Tue, 30 Sep 2014 23:09:50 -0400, micky >
>wrote:
>
>>How to remove and replace a snap ring in a FWD car.
......
>
>Just looked at your webpage/write up. Nice job.

Thank you.