Hi,

I'm trying to fix a leak on my power steering pump, as seen in these two pictures:




So I removed the pump cover and I'm stuck on the next step. I need to remove a snap ring holding the shaft/pulley composite to the pump housing, as seen here:


But this snap ring is unlike the ones I know, which have a hole on both ends to fit snap ring pliers. How would you remove and then install this snap ring without damaging it? The gap seems to be around 1 mm!

Thanks for the help.

P.S. Worst case scenario I figure that just changing the O-rings on the pump cover should fix the leak. Is this right?

 

What did you end up doing? Did the outer ring fix your problem?

 

I just changed all the seals I could (the main big seal, and some small ones I had access to). I bought all of the seals, but couldn't use the ones that required that ring to be removed. And yes, my problems went away. I think the main big seal was the guilty party. It's been a year and there is no more leak on my system. Also changed the O-rings in the inlet and exit of the pump.

It would have been nice to do a complete overhaul tough, so if anyone knows how to properly take out this ring and properly install it back (without deforming it), then I am all ears. On pre 2008 Accords Honda uses a proper snap ring which you can easily remove with snap ring pliers. Don't know why they went away from that design.

 

you need special lock ring pliers for removing gearshaft lock rings