|
Ron Stygar Carl Buckland Dale Beuning Forums Help
Subject: <E36> Lets remove the bitch of a clip without breaking it
Someone asked me if I had figured out how to remove the bitch of a clip without breaking it. I told him not yet, but I am working on it. I've looked at this for some time. Well, I finally got it. It's amazing how relatively easy this is, once you figure out the trick. I did this on my '96 328is. Feel free to keep breaking them, or remove it in a way that works for you. Here we go. Lets see what the clip looks like.
The picture below is the tool I used.
It helps get you some room if you place a ~3/4 inch thick, 1 1/2 inch wide by 3 inch long piece of wood between the top of the shifting arm and the insulating foam. Position it just forward of the shifting arm where it gets larger to hold the nylon cup. I tried many of my screwdrivers and this old one worked the best. Although not necessary, I refined it a little. Since mine will be a dedicated use tool, I bent the forward tip end downward ~1/8 inch, about 1 1/4 inch back from the tip. This will make it slightly easier to position. Since it's hard to see what's going on I added a reference mark so that I would know when the screwdriver blade tip was vertical. To make it easier on my arthritis I removed some of the rear end of the rubber handle covering. This exposed some of the 9/16 inch hex handle if I need to use a wrench on it in the future. Position the screwdriver tip vertical in the clips (passenger side) slot. Using your left hand you can reach up and help guide it into the clip slot. Check with a mirror to make sure, if you are not familiar with its position.
Pulling toward you (the drivers side) doesn't work to unhook the clips tab. I tried for a long time with many different screwdrivers. No cigar. Here's the trick. If you position the screwdriver the same way (as above) and rotate the screwdriver on its axis CCW looking from the screwdrivers handle end (instead of pulling it) it now unhooks the tab and now pulling downward on the screwdriver handle, the clip rotates upward which lets you pull it out. When you reinstall the clip, make sure you push it down all the way so that the tab locks back in place. You have to push down really hard to accomplish this.
RonStygar_at_aol.com FLY BMW Marlborough, CT |
