How do you get the snap ring out of reluctor?

Well I wonder if I can ask for a little more help.

So far I have removed the distributor, replaced the pickup coil with a new unit from NAPA, replaced the reluctor with the pin in the same place, replaced the distributor in the car.

I start the car - starts right up. But it does not run any better than it did (more on that below). I again plug in the 70s tech blue electronic ignition diagnostic tool (in case you don't know what that is, it is a special tool that was used by Mopar techs for these electronic ignitions ... you unhook the wiring that attaches to the hot box and attach one end to the male connector and one to the female connector - so that the tool effectively replaces the hot box) and again it indicates that the pick up circuit is failing. On the back of the tool it tells me that when the light for the pick up is on - which it is - that means either the pickup circuit or wiring is faulty. Since it apparently is not the coil, then I suppose that leaves the wiring. I'm not real good with wiring problems; can anyone here provide a few pointers? Thanks in advance.

***Now, about how the car is running ... What immediately led to my adventure in distributor repair was that I started the car in February or March. It was cold, but the car eventually started after not being run for a few months. But boy did it run bad. It would not idle, and when I reved it up, I thought it would break an engine mount. So I shut it of and left it until last week. Last week it started much easier and started in fact to run well ... idled okay ... and so I took it for a spin. It ran pretty good, but off a bit (not much) in power. Then all of a sudden it started to not idle again and so I quickly got it home by not letting it drop to idle and put it back in the drive. It was also running rough again, and near idle the oil pressure went down to 20-25 lbs (it usually never goes down below 55 and is up to 80 at speed). And the diagnostic unit indicated the pickup circuit fault.

One other thing - for years (note: I drive the car very little so that's not really a lot of mileage) the car has occasionally emitted a chirping sound at idle and when returning to idle. I had a couple of mechanics look at it and nobody thought much of it) Well that chirping is now much worse and I feel sure that it's because of this ignition problem setting it way way out of time. Thanks again for reading my little tomb.