The pliers you are talking about are called external snap ring pliers. But don't waste your money.
I'd start with some fairly rough sand paper and get rid of as much rust as you can. Then spray your favorite rust treatment around the shoulder of the clamp. You don't need much spread on the clamp to make it loosen up. So if you have a pry bar of some kind that will spread the 2 halves apart. A long straight screw driver, a wonder bar, you can get creative here. Once you get a little clearance you can grip the seat at front and back and twist side to side. You don't need a full circle Just break it loose if possible. I would want to pull it up and out to clean the stem real good. Once you do that put some car wax on it to keep the rust away. The worst that will happen here is you will need to pick up a new seat. When you get to that decision, go for the pipe wrench and get rough with it. Remember your daughter is only 6 so maybe she shouldn't watch all this. They always seem to pick up on the words when you are struggling with something. ----- Original Message ----- From: Victor Gouveia To: Blind Handyman Listserv Sent: Thursday, July 03, 2008 9:14 PM Subject: [BlindHandyMan] Bicycle Repair 101 Questions Hi Folks, We just got a hand me down mountain bike from one of my wife's patients. It's a mini mountain bike. The size is perfect for her, except that the seat needs to be lowered as low as it will go. Right now it's about six inches up from the frame, and it has to come down all the way. Now, before everyone floods my inbox with answers on how to do this, I just need to say that I know how to lower the seat, the problem is that it's rusted so much that it won't budge. I've tried pounding the seat down with my fist, tried a board with a hammer, and yet nothing. I've tried to widen the piece of metal clamping onto the seat bar, and it won't budge, but then again, that may be because I'm not using the proper set of tools. I remember my father having a pair of, well, anti-pliers, for lack of a better term, that would open out instead of in. In other words, instead of tightening around an object, it would let it go when you squeezed it. I've tried high and low to find a set like that, but to no avail, so I'm left to work with what I have. Can anyone suggest a way of loosening this seat so I can clean the rust off, do something to it so it won't rust anymore, and replace it back on the bike so it looks relatively new? Any ideas would be very much appreciated, by both me and my daughter, and remember, if this list fails to answer this question, you'll be disappointing a 6 year-old little girl. Smile. Naw folks, I'm just kidding, she doesn't even know I'm writing this letter. LOL. In any case, any suggestions are better than none. Victor Co-moderator Blind Movie Buffs List Guidedogs List [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
