Civic EG

I'm taking my tranny apart and I'm stuck! I'm talking about the snap ring inside the fill hole that holds the bearing in place.
The manual says to use snap ring pliers and pull it off the bearing. But you can't just expand the snap ring and pull it up out of the groove on the bearing. The case is cut away for the snap ring but the cut is not large enough to give any play to move the snap ring up or down.



there is room for it to expand out, but not move up or down.




I wonder if my snap ring pliers are not the right type? They work great on the snap rings that have the tiny hole on each side.. These pliers have little pins on the tips that grab those holes. This snap ring doesn't have those holes on each side.


This is after a good 30 mins of trying to get it off. I used 2 screwdrivers to get this far. I'm guessing I got the snap ring out of the ridge on the other side of the bearing and that's why it is not snapping back into it's original place. In one side the curved part is all the way against the casing, it is close but not quite touching on the other side. What am I supposed to do to get this thing off??

Nice Pics

What I did was have one person with 2 screw drivers pry those apart and someone lifting under the lid on the pry points with pry bars/large screw drivers.

Doing it with 1 person will be hard. Thankfully I had my dad to help me work on it.

That popped the case off for me several times.

I figured you would be the first to respond mr. DIY tranny guru

what do you mean by lifting under the lid?

That snap ring is holding the shaft in place, which is preventing the tranny cast & clutch housing from coming apart, correct? (already tool the 13 bolts out)

So when I finally spread that ring far enough apart, will the whole shaft & bearing fall down from its own weight, or will I need a second person to tap it with something to get it to move down?

yes, having two people is a bit easier.
yes he does mean spread them apart and basically jiggle the case loose. if its never been apart it should take a jiggle or two. then the two will pop apart

wow what a PITA one snap ring is
please tell me this is the hardest part!

I must be close since it can't spread too much further...

When one person is separating(holding it open) the pin, the second person prys on these spots popping the case loose.

100%. built plenty of s20's in college for our autocross hatch. yes the snap ring is the hardest. until you come to replacing the syncors and gears. and event then all you need is a press..

thanks chrono. couldnt find the pics fast enough

SOHCivegra wrote:thanks chrono. couldnt find the pics fast enough

Lol, I knew where to look as I made them

Good luck on separating the half's teal.

I already broke the seal and pried them apart a little. I'll wait till I get someone to help me & give it another shot