Bucket mod goof

[etpm]

Anyone who saw my previous post will probably note that the way I mounted the extensions could be improved. When I made the extensions I bored two large holes for pins in the plates. One pair of holes got a bushing welded between them. The other pair of holes were meant to be used just for alignment purposes. I was gonna slide a pin through the holes so that the new bushing locations would be moved the exact same amount on each loader arm. But then I decided to not weld the extensions on. So I drilled a couple smaller holes for bolts in the extension plates. The pins I made for alignment were only about as long as the width of the extensions so I machined them to be .030" shorter, then drilled and tapped them. So now the extensions have 3 bolts on each side holding them to the loader arms. But I really should have also welded bushings to the outside of the extension plates and used longer pins because the way it is now each pin is only locating on the extension plate's 3/16" thickness. I will check the pins after I use the loader for a bit and if I see any significant deformation on the ends of the pins where the plates contact the pins I will turn up some bushings, weld them to the plates, and make longer locating pins. Or, maybe I will decide that the extensions are working just as I want and just weld them in place.
Eric