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I have these parts put together really tightly and have no idea how to separate them. Does anyone have any suggestions?

enter image description here

Sorry for the black color, I do not have them in any of the brighter colors, so I put the separated ones on the photo for clarity.

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  • I would probably, unfortunately, use a knife here. Especially if these parts are old.
    – Alex
    Feb 29, 2020 at 20:38
  • I thought that it might be the only solution. I cannot believe LEGO decided to use this assembly (in set 8466).
    – BalazsToth
    Feb 29, 2020 at 20:54
  • I think Lego has already considered this problem. The plate has already a rounded corner so that you can separate them even with your fingernails.
    – kelalaka
    Mar 2, 2020 at 11:52

2 Answers 2

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That is unfortunate situation. What makes your matter worse is that these two parts come from quite old set (OP mentioned 8466). Aged parts tend to have stronger clutch power than the newer parts. Even if these two parts were new they would be pretty hard to take apart. In this situation I think the only solution is taking sharp knife (like x-acto or utility knife) and gently go around the edge where two parts get together to try and make them go apart slightly. I would recommend using the edge of the blade, rather than the sharp point first. Don't try to disassemble them with one go, but rather do it gently around with your knife until you get some progress.

Alternatively, if parts cannot be disassembled, you have two more options:

  1. Get in touch with LEGO Support and complain about it. It is highly likely they will just ship you new parts, despite set being so old.
  2. You can buy them yourself. Parts are:

32017 - Technic, Liftarm 1 x 5 Thin

32124 - Technic, Plate 1 x 5 with Smooth Ends, 4 Studs and Center Axle Hole

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    I managed to separate them after rinsing them in soapy water for a few minutes and then gently pushing the knife along the longer side of the parts. They came apart surprisingly easily.
    – BalazsToth
    Mar 1, 2020 at 8:32
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I don't know what pieces you have in your collection to build the perfect most creative piece separator, so my answer will be based on, "What common items do many people have on hand in a house?"

  • Try a dull butter knife.

EDIT:

Or we can just ignore what I said, and make something simple with pieces many of us should have.

  • Find any sized beam 5 pin holes or above.
  • Insert some pegs in the holes.
  • Place stuck pieces on top.
  • Apply downward pressure mainly holding from the black piece (Part 32017) to create a starting point of separation.
  • Once a gap has started it can be easily "unzipped" apart by running a finger nail/plastic knife down the gap.

enter image description here

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  • I'd go with sharp knife instead. As if there was a gap to insert blunt knife, you could get these pieces apart with fingers.
    – Alex
    Feb 29, 2020 at 21:03
  • In my house, with me, I'd go full brain surgan with a x-acto knife, but I don't know the skill level/age of the OP. Start with dull, work your way up. Safety first.
    – Rin Rio-Oki
    Feb 29, 2020 at 21:27
  • Posting after your edit. I've examined your proposed solution, and I'm afraid to say that it simply won't work. Your suggestion results in pushing one part with all the pins without having anything attached to another one. So basically you are doing nothing here.
    – Alex
    Mar 1, 2020 at 6:12
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    Is my solution the "only" solution? No. Creating a gap could be done with one peg and one beam, but actually siting down and playing with the pieces vs, running off to LEGO support to make a complaint... Seriously? We need to stop complaining. Sit down. Do the work. Come up with quality solutions. Edit. Repeat.
    – Rin Rio-Oki
    Mar 2, 2020 at 2:07
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    I'm sure your solution works nicely on GIF. However, unfortunately, I hardly see how this is an improvement over previous picture. Your proposed solution is based on the fact you can somehow grab liftarm, and later push it apart. The I see here - there's nowhere to grab that liftarm to push it away. If there WAS a sufficient gap between the parts you basically wouldn't have this question raised by OP. To make things worse you have to account for these parts being quite old. And old parts have greater clutch power for some reason.
    – Alex
    Mar 2, 2020 at 16:00

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