Backhoe thumb not fitting

[thunder86]

So the top pin for the thumb won’t match up in the hole. Didn’t take a hammer to it yet but my guess is it’s off enough to where that won’t work. Doesn’t look as though anything is bent out of place. Do they all fit this bad?

 

[LS Tractor Owner]

Nope.... most fit very easy. I put my thumb on in under 5 minutes, that included taking out the original pin on the bucket. I really thought I didn't put it on right because it was 'too easy'.

it looks like the plates were not welded on at the same spot / aligned properly. A simple solution would be to just drill out each side maybe a 1/16" larger. It is not really a frequent pivot point under stress. My factory thumb has a good bit of play at that mounting point.

If the tractor /BH is under warranty, I would have the dealer fix it or drill it out.... make sure you get paperwork from them showing what they did.

 

[4570Man]

Sometimes a new pin will take some beating because of paint buildup in the hole but that looks misaligned a little bit.

 

[Seven Gables]

They got her pretty close

 

[thunder86]

Nope.... most fit very easy. I put my thumb on in under 5 minutes, that included taking out the original pin on the bucket. I really thought I didn't put it on right because it was 'too easy'.

it looks like the plates were not welded on at the same spot / aligned properly. A simple solution would be to just drill out each side maybe a 1/16" larger. It is not really a frequent pivot point under stress. My factory thumb has a good bit of play at that mounting point.

If the tractor /BH is under warranty, I would have the dealer fix it or drill it out.... make sure you get paperwork from them showing what they did.

I just bought it about 2 weeks, haven’t even made the first payment. My thing is though if all the dealer is gonna do is take a dremel tool and shave off 1/16 of an inch or so of metal, I have a buddy that has one I can do myself in 10 minutes versus waiting on the dealer to do a easy step job. They may have my tractor for days and gotta wait for day off to get it to them, day off to pick up… But I don’t wanna mess it up either and be stuck.

 

[Tinhack]

You might want to measure the distance between those ears and compare it to the thumb width. Perhaps one or both ears are flared out. Use a BFH to "tap" each ear in to get the hole to align. I'd rather do that than remove metal.

 

[CoyPatton]

As close as that appears, I would not be surprised in the least that paint build up is a bit thick in one spot on that first hole. I realize the securement bolt is inly on 1 side and that is the intended insertion direction, but try reversing for alignment purposes. It is possible it will be aligned and working that way will knock down the excess paint.
Good luck!
That is so close that I would not wait for a dealer to get to it either.