Another MC circlip thread

[eil]

I began breaking down my front brakes today to see what condition their condition was in. (If you have that song stuck in your head now too... you're welcome.) So I already know I need a cup and piston set for the front MC and rebuild kits for each caliper but I wanted to take everything apart so that I could see if there were any other miscellaneous parts I have to order.

I had some measure of success with the calipers, but the master cylinder eludes me. From my reading of many threads here, I'm lead to understand that there's a circlip that holds the piston in. Well, something is holding it in, but it's not a circlip. At least, not one that I have ever seen before...



There's just a rusted up metal clip thing in there. Could PO have snapped off the tabs that would have made for easy removal? How can I get that thing out? I went at it for a half an hour with various tiny screwdrivers and even a new metal awl/poker/o-ring remover and it doesn't budge. Can't even rotate it around to the brake lever slot.

Advice?

[Agemax]

squirt some penetrating oil in and let it soak for a while, then give it a good clean out.
there is a small gap at each end of the clip that you should be able to get a tiny flat blade screwdriver into and prise it out of the groove.
some times a little tap all round the clip with a small hammer and punch can help by breaking the rust and crud that has built up and stopping the clip from freeing up.
also pushing the piston in with a screwdriver lets you see the clip a bit better and can help in its removal

[eil]

Hmm, okay. Appreciate the suggestions. I'll shoot some oil in there tonight to prepare for hacking on it tomorrow. Maybe that'll loosen it up enough that I can at least spin it a bit. But I don't see any gaps to pry or pull from. I can push the piston in, but it doesn't give me much more room to work in (and it's hard to keep held down).

[Big T]

If you look at about 2-3 o clock in your photo, you can see the holes that the circlips pliers fit into

You need an extra long circlips pliers to get in there

[eil]

Finally got it out:



What I did was basically mangle the white plastic washer, operating on the assumption that if I could get that out, there would be more room to remove the c-clip. And actually, it ended up coming out (more or less) with the washer. Not sure what these two pieces are for. Were they supposed to hold the dust boot in?

Once those were removed, I finally had access to the circlip and pulled it right out.

Thanks for the tips, everyone!