I had to cut the handle off my old shower head because it was completely corroded and frozen on the shaft. I pulled the retaining clip from the cartridge casing and tried pulling it out with some channel locks. No go. Is there a trick? This is a pull-on, turn-temp.

Help on cartridge ID would be awesome too

I want to go replace my cartridge today, seems like a pretty easy task. Unscrew everything, water off, pull it out, put in the new one. Long, long ago, I had a plumber come to the house for a variety of things. One of the things he did was change the cartridge on the shower. When he had was a $100 dollar specialized tool for removing the cartridge. He made it seem like a job that couldn't be done normally.

Now I can't tell if we have old faucets that require that (shouldn't be, house is from the 80s), or if he just bought it to make his life easier, or what. But it's scared me off for a while from trying my own cartridge replacement. Any idea what this tool would be? It's been a long time, but I remember it being a long tube device. Placed it over the opening and extract it.

I'll be trying my own repair today, so wish me luck! But with pliers, and probably two trips to Home Depot :P