Has anyone ever removed a Kif A (Flector) shock spring?

[horologist]

It is one found in some the older Rolex caliber and also in some older day dates !  Scary looking thing shown in the image below !  Is there a special tool to do this or just rotate tweezers and risk losing it forever ?  It looks like an even bigger nightmare than the modern novodiac spring found in your typical eta!  🤨

 

Thanks 

[horologist]

This seems embarrassing as I found my answer in the link below seconds after posting this thread!  😳 I had been searching for weeks without success!  It felt like windy rain coming down just after having nicely washed my car! My apologies! 
 

 Now for anyone else that might have the same enquiry I have posted the link with the the answer to my own question in the reply by ccwatchmaker

 

https://www.watchuseek.com/threads/releasing-kif-shock-absorber.5041935/

 

thanks for your understanding! 

[ceejay]

Luckily this is a captive spring so won't fly away when released! Good luck.

[freddy333]

All of these cap jewel springs are nightmares, whether captive or not. I would rather sort out a box of badly mangled hairsprings than r&r a single cap jewel, because they so frequently pop-off (& fly who-knows-where) when you least expect it. But if you do enough of them, they become more pitfall than nightmare. Good luck & remember -- practice, practice, practice.

Both Ziggy & I (& possibly others) posted tutorials on these back in the day, but alot of those old threads have been relocated, so they may be difficult to locate these days. Pity, there was a wealth of really useful watchmaking guides that used to be a quick search away.

[horologist]

Guys! Thanks for your replies!!  Much appreciated!!

 

cap jewels are themselves a pain also because there really is no easy way to work with them  regardless of if you use tweezers or rodico to control them (well for me anyway!)  practise, practise is true, but it is also true that the nightmare is just transformed to a pitfall!

 

when the spring is user unfriendly, this just adds more stress on the job! I hate the novodiac 3 prong spring or any rotating spring that likes to fly out, My worst are the seiko diashock smaller springs!  I don’t bother with those movements at all !!  Cheaper to r3place than to repair!