Well, the early models don't have a spring, and the pliers are very useful without it. It can be replaced. I replaced it in a mod I'm working on, and can detail it in another post when I'm finished with the mod. But essentially I cut a piece of metal out of a Leatherman pocket clip, bent it, dremeled it, and fit it into the backspring. I had to disassemble the tool and re-peen everything to do it, though.Unfortunately the SwissGear isn't the most useful model, because of the fish scaler. But it's still a great pair of needle nosed pliers.Charles.
IF, and it's a big IF there is enough of the spring sticking out, you can possibly remove it without splitting the thing apart. It will just pull straight out... pressure from everything riveted together keeps it kinda stuck, so you may have to apply heat. I've not had one broken off with enough sticking out to be able to do this yet, but it is feasably possible.Charles.
I've never seen Coast pliers with such a misaligned head or that are stiff enough to require two hands.... and I have around 20 pairs now. (I know, I'm sick). You say they're unused... you sure?So, looking at your pics, the bottom jaw is dragging against the spacer. Hold the pliers in a vise so that only the riveted area of the fixed jaw is held in the vise. Use a punch and a hammer to ker-plang! the spacer sideways to create more clearance. The pliers are riveted at the fixed jaw and at the pivot, and you can bend the side plates a little to get clearance. I did this with the junk copies all the time to get them to loosen up, but I've not needed it with the Coast pliers yet. The fact that the rivets were loose on the fixed jaw tells me you either have an abused copy or perhaps a factory second. Charles.
Also I just bought a lot of 15 tools just to get another Sport Mechanic