9 in. Angle-Tip Lock Ring Pliers for Transmission Snap and Retaining Rings

Anyone who has torn into a transmission or a transfer case knows the ring that stops the job cold: a flat, hardened lock ring with no holes for a normal circlip plier to hook into. Try to pry it with a screwdriver and it launches across the shop or gouges the shaft. These pliers are built for exactly that ring. The jaws end in angled tips that slip under the ring and spread it open from the outside, so you lift it off the shaft or out of the bore without fighting it or marring the parts around it.

The tips are knurled on the ends so they bite and hold instead of skating off the edge of a greasy ring, and the spring-loaded action opens the jaws back up on its own for easy one-handed work when your other hand is holding the assembly. PVC-dipped handles cut down the hand fatigue that comes with squeezing a stiff ring loose over and over on a rebuild.

The plier is forged from high-carbon steel with a black-oxide finish that shrugs off the rust and grime of a working bench, so it keeps its shape and its edge job after job. At 9 inches it reaches into the deeper ring grooves on gear and bearing shafts, and it doubles for the soft horseshoe lock washers on brake and clutch shafts. If you rebuild automatics or crack open transfer cases, this is the one plier that turns the ring that used to eat an hour into a ten-second lift.