Broken snap ring

[D35 Torpedo]

Hey guy, 

 

Been a while since I've posted anything here, but it's been smooth sailing until now. I'm having transmission problems yet again. So I pulled the transmission and tore it apart...did I mention again? Turns out, the snap-ring retaining the input bearing to the input shaft has broken. That allowed the shaft to move back enough to whipe out the third gear syncro and do other damage. I just grabbed my spare transmission to tear it apart. I Popped off the front bearing retainer to find the exact same issue...great. What I want to know is, is this problem common? 

[kencombs]

• Not really common IME, but what is common is folks putting those rings in backward.   If you look closely at at an external snap ring you'll see that one side is very sharp, maybe even with a little 'lip' extending from the edge.   The other will be slightly rounded, very slightly.   This is the result of the manufacturing process, they are stamped from a steel blank before heat treating.  
• If the rounded side is facing away from the load it can lead to being wedged from the groove, possibly breakage as it comes out.
• The other thing that happens a lot is over expansion when installing weakening the ring.  Wrong tool used or just gorilla hands.