What the f’n trick to get the tail shaft clip spread far enough apart

70Roadkill said
One of the issues I had was there wasn't any knurling to grip the snap ring when spreading it, it kepts slipping off. Need to get me a pair so in the future it goes a bit smoother.

I used to have retaining ring pliers for manual trans snap rings that were just bad *** and worked perfect for those rings as well.
They were made for example, for those big 1/8 thick input shaft bearing rings.
Fortunately they disappeared somewhere over the years after I got out of the trans business.
Mine were Snap On so they probably cost 80 bucks, but I really don't remember how much they were.
They were a life saver on tough snap rings.