I am in the process of doing the gimbal and bellows of my MC-1. I can't get a good enough grip on the ring to either pull it tight enough to get something behind the ring and pull it or use the tools I have to do it on their own.
As pictured first I bought the Channel Lock 927 reversible snap ring pliers. Nice tool, reverses with a little lever like the reverse lever on a ratchet. At it's widest open setting necessary to get the pins into the ring holes it just slips out under pressure due to the angle.
Later I bought the 11" needle nose pliers from Pep Boys. As made the tips were a little too fat to get into the holes. A couple of rotations against the fine wheel on my bench grinder resolved that issue but I still can't get a good enough grip.
So far I'm $30.00 into tools that didn't do the job. I probably could have dragged it to the marina and spent not much more for 10 minutes worth of effort with the correct Mercruiser tool I'd only need once.
Any ideas for how I can do this? I'd really like to finish the bellows job this weekend.
As pictured first I bought the Channel Lock 927 reversible snap ring pliers. Nice tool, reverses with a little lever like the reverse lever on a ratchet. At it's widest open setting necessary to get the pins into the ring holes it just slips out under pressure due to the angle.
Later I bought the 11" needle nose pliers from Pep Boys. As made the tips were a little too fat to get into the holes. A couple of rotations against the fine wheel on my bench grinder resolved that issue but I still can't get a good enough grip.
So far I'm $30.00 into tools that didn't do the job. I probably could have dragged it to the marina and spent not much more for 10 minutes worth of effort with the correct Mercruiser tool I'd only need once.
Any ideas for how I can do this? I'd really like to finish the bellows job this weekend.
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