How best to deal with these snap rings, circlips, or retaining rings ?

Or whatever you want to call them. The ones I am talking about are like the ones that are on some (all?) axle assemblies that hold the cv joint on and look like snap rings but without the holes to grab them with snap ring pliers. Is there a tool that is especially made to work with these clips?

I usually spread them with circlip pliers and then pop them of with a straight blade screwdriver. Then replace with a NEW one when re-assembling.

You can buy snapring pliers with flat tips like this from Snap On:


Makes life 100x easier.

You can put that minor in mechanical engineering to work.

Determine if a more conventional internal circlip with eyes would be suitable for your application. A good set of pliers is invaluable either way.

Yes, it has a thin flat nose with "knurling" on the outsides.

Piston ring extanders?