Those little jesus clips will drive you nuts. I don't usually disassemble that far. The jesus clip is made of spring steel, and will have a tendency to fly away depending on how you go about removing them. The interior diameter of the clip is just slightly larger than the OD of the keyway on the insert. The arms of the clip are smaller than the OD of the keyway. There are certain pliers made specifically for removing these. They simply push on and pull off the groove.

I have used a very small regular screwdriver to pry the clips loose. As ploughman says- they can jump all over the place. I used a cloth around the lug to control the flight path.

Small pliers work to put them back on, using the same cloth.

I can attest to loosing a few of those clips! I was able to get some spares from JP2creations. I finally got smart and held the lugs inside a small waste basket to catch those flying clips! Hmmm...maybe I such just invest in the proper tool?!!

Mark

Thanks for that. They looked like trouble as soon as i saw them. I had to remove some larger ones from some Premier spurs and one flew at close to the speed of light to some far flung part of New Zealand, never to be seen again. I may look into getting a specific tool if there is one as there are a lot to do. I was a bit worried also that they may not be as snug when they go back on. Part of me would prefer not to touch them but the other part of me wants to clean them properly and they are filthy (usually the filthiest part of any lug I guess)

In my opinion, there is no need to take those apart. I've done it only to replace stripped inserts etc. A careful cleaning around the insert with some chrome polish and a piece of t-shirt material will do the trick.

Same with the spring-loaded lugs, they don't come apart except for repairs.

Needle nose pliers might help. Either out right to grab and yank or once you get it lifted out of the groove slightly. Best way to put them back in too.

thanks Dan and Glenn. I'm going to try and clean them up without removing them. My biggest concern is the circlips being sloppy when they are reinstalled.

I have the right tool, c-clip pliers (stock photo of one below) and I still don't attempt to remove c-clips if I don't have to. You use the little pins on these pliers to spread the c-clip while holding it with needlenose pliers in the other hand. P.I.T.A.

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Mike

thanks Mike, I'm going to leave them in place. I figure I have another 80 lugs on the kit that i'm tackling next, so 100 all up. My sanity may not stretch that far if i remove all the clipscrying2-07