I dont know how to use that one (nor do I own one), I have the kind that you screw down over the spring. I went back again and rapped a few times on the retainer and tried again and this time the keepers came loose. I just needed to enlist a second pair of hands to pull out the keepers while I compressed the inner spring by hand (pushing down on the valve spring compressor). Success!!

So today I am bringing the springs, hardware, seat height, and cam card to my machinist to find out how stiff they are. Hopefully they will be acceptable enough for my cam. A big lesson learned....

Hey here is another lesson....always make sure your machinist tightened up the lifter oil galley plugs before you install your transmission!!!
I primed the motor two days ago and found a big puddle of oil under the car the next day. Crawled underneath and the rear main seal area looks dry (whew!)...inspected a little further and it appears to be squirting out onto the flywheel on the passenger side. btw: when I ran the primer, my gauge went right up to 60psi so it is not a gaping hole. I am assuming that it is a case of a finger tightened plug....we'll see.

So if anyone knows an easier way to tighten those plugs without pulling the tranny back, please speak up!....still gonna try and start it this weekend pending the this leak and my springs. Serious PITA and frustrating but hey...that's hotrodding...if it was easy, everybody would do it.