MikefromMI
Silver Member
Hey, been a while since I've contributed. Thought I'd throw this up here.
The price was right. I had to do it. The New Holland boom is about a 1/4" wider than the unit. The least confusing way to explain what I did is I cut the boom mount in half. By doing this the thumb will now mount inside the boom mount, not outside. This means that once cut in half. The "knubs" left on the pivot hole of the thumb will have to be cut and ground flush for it to swing into the stow position. This was actually the longest part. The pin that the support arm for the thumb pivots on will have to be cut to allow the thumb all the way up. Remember the thumb used to come up on the inside. Once cut you will have to mark and drill holes on the inside & insert cotter pins on either side to hold it in place (see picture.) Last I drilled and bolted a 1/4 piece of stock to support the back side. (see picture.) I know all of this sounds deep. But it's not bad. You need a 4" cut wheel, a drill, a couple cotter pins, and 3 longer bolts for the top of the boom mount. My boom mount sets where it's at to cover clearances with the bucket as well as the bucket cylinder. You'll see as you get into it what needs to be tweaked. I picked up some really heavy boulders. Maybe 3' x 2'. A few hundred pounds. It did mess up the some teeth tips on the thumb. I wished they were harder. But for the price it did good. You can always pull the thumb off and throw it on the bench to beef it up. This could have been welded and saved some time and purchasing the 3 bolts. I wanted to be able to remove it if need be. Good Luck. Be careful. This writeup is for educational purposes only! Drop a line if any clarification is needed. I'm Sicilian. Hard to get a point across when you can't see my hands! Lol
The price was right. I had to do it. The New Holland boom is about a 1/4" wider than the unit. The least confusing way to explain what I did is I cut the boom mount in half. By doing this the thumb will now mount inside the boom mount, not outside. This means that once cut in half. The "knubs" left on the pivot hole of the thumb will have to be cut and ground flush for it to swing into the stow position. This was actually the longest part. The pin that the support arm for the thumb pivots on will have to be cut to allow the thumb all the way up. Remember the thumb used to come up on the inside. Once cut you will have to mark and drill holes on the inside & insert cotter pins on either side to hold it in place (see picture.) Last I drilled and bolted a 1/4 piece of stock to support the back side. (see picture.) I know all of this sounds deep. But it's not bad. You need a 4" cut wheel, a drill, a couple cotter pins, and 3 longer bolts for the top of the boom mount. My boom mount sets where it's at to cover clearances with the bucket as well as the bucket cylinder. You'll see as you get into it what needs to be tweaked. I picked up some really heavy boulders. Maybe 3' x 2'. A few hundred pounds. It did mess up the some teeth tips on the thumb. I wished they were harder. But for the price it did good. You can always pull the thumb off and throw it on the bench to beef it up. This could have been welded and saved some time and purchasing the 3 bolts. I wanted to be able to remove it if need be. Good Luck. Be careful. This writeup is for educational purposes only! Drop a line if any clarification is needed. I'm Sicilian. Hard to get a point across when you can't see my hands! Lol