Removing poppet from keg post

Need a little help here. Getting ready to start kegging beer for the first time. I searched the site and found some helpful hints on removing the poppets. I have four kegs to clean and rebuild. Of course they are all different from one another. The one I decided to clean and get ready last night said it was made in Italy (it is a ball lock, they all are). I compared them to the AEB poppets on williams brewing webpage and they seemed to match that the best. I tried getting the poppet out with a small nail but couldn't get the brackets to pop out as the were lodged. So I took a nail and placed the post on a piece of wood and dislodged the poppet from the post. My problem though is that doing this method I bent each of the brackets pretty bad on one leg each. I was able to straighten them both out with needle nose pliers. I guess my question is: Is there any way to get the poppets removed without bending these brackets? Pictures and/or links with directions would be appreciated greatly as I have three more to clean and rebuild. Thanks for all the help.

Brandon

Wish I could offer up advice, but i've never heard of the poppets getting stuck in the posts the way you describe. Are you sure there isn't some sort of tension ring in the post which is holding the poppet assembly in place?

Did you try pulling them out by the feet using needlenose pliers, instead of pushing them out with a nail? I have always found that if you wiggle the feet a bit, you can always pull them out.