2hrs trying to get c-clip out of powertrax, ideas?

My powertrax has been making some noise so I was gonna take it out and reinstall it. I tried like hell for over two hours last night. I have jiggled it, tryed to use small like eyeglass type screw drivers, tweezers, just about anything to get it out. It is loose and it moves around, it's even lined up with the slot which it will start to drop out of but it just wont fall out. Any ideas?

Blow it with an air nozzle if you have a compressor.

i don't know what i'm talking about but figured any suggestion is better than none. i have always seen people push the axle in and then the c-clips come right out. push in from the tire side into the diff. hope that helps.

magnet maybe?

this is gonna sound really wierd but i had to use a foot log piece of ribbon, like wrap your gift ribbon. it had enogh strength to tug the c-clip out but still fit between the parts. i had tried all kind of stuff from dental floss to string, but they would all shear in the locker. I had to use a pick to thread the ribbon around the clip and make sure the clip was facing down, then i held my tounge just right prayed to the locker gods and even promised to kiss my dads arse if it worked. It worked!

I had this same problem with an early 8.25 No-Slip. I made sure to slightly grind the outer circumference of the c-clips before I put them back in and didn't ever have the problem again.

spaulman said:

I had this same problem with an early 8.25 No-Slip. I made sure to slightly grind the outer circumference of the c-clips before I put them back in and didn't ever have the problem again.

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The problems is that the c-clips gets anealed against the center pin when cornering and makes the c-clip larger in diameter.

The first time this happened, it took me 5 hrs to get the damned c-clip out. What I ended up doing was to use a piece of .030 tig welding wire, pounded it super flat in the middle (1 1/2" to 2" section). I folded it in the center so that it had about a 1/8" gap, worked it into the slot and over the edge of the c-clip. I used a small screw driver then to work the c-clip around so that the flattened wire was centered in the c-clip. I then took the loose ends of the wire, wrapped around another larger screw driver and pulled like hell. It came out.

Afterward, I greatly reduced the diameter of the c-clip to avoid the issue in the future and also slightly elongated the slot in the no slip.

I keep that pice of wire in my toolbox permanently.

The ribbon idea will work well also, but if it's really tight, even the ribbon will break.

thanks alot fellas, all great ideas, don't worry at this point none of them sound weird, I'l go try for another few hours now lol

ok I've broken ribbon after ribbon, and I tried .030 MIG, didn't have tig handy, and that just broke where I pounded it flat. I'm thinking about getting a drill bit up in there to try and bust the c clip apart with a punch an pull the piece out. I have extra c clips and obviously I'll get all the metal shavings out of the housing, but I feel that once in pieces the clip should come out. Right now I feel as if this is the last option, but any objections or opinions on how this might go??? Thanks for ideas or anything

bump, need to drive home tomarrow

I decided to skip out on taking it apart and just try to get it back together so I can drive home, but now things are really really bad. I got it all back together following their instructions, sealed it all up and put it into drive. It slamed once (I figured it was aligning itself or something) and moved a bit forward. Then I gave it some gas to get over the hump at the end of the garage and the damn thing starts racheting without moving!! I got scared and put it in reverse and same thing racheting without moving. It had done this twice before when I was lining up in the staging area for a big dogs run, so I got scared opened up the diff; no shavings, no pieces, or anything. This was the reason for me ATTEMPTING to dissasemble it tonight and just re-install it, but that damn c-clip stopped me. Powertrax was no help at all, the guy said "well it went in easy right?" yes, "Well it should come out easy", that was about it. I have my old spiders but I can't get the busted-ass locker out. Anyone ever encounter this racheting without moving?

GOT IT after 10 hours, had to drill through the c-clip and hit a screwdriver into the hole, then I just pulled it out, turns out the racheting was due to broken paddles on both active spacers.

those active spacer thingies are gay!! KISS

mjma said:

those active spacer thingies are gay!! KISS

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They only tend to fail when installed improperly... I think it's some pretty good engineering..