Dental work

The teeth on my backhoe were worn nearly to nubs and I wanted to replace them. I was also missing one of the stubs that was welded on at some time in the past. Off to the local supply house and got the base, new teeth, and these pins with rubber in the middle to hold everything in place. Job seemed simple enough...That was until I started punching out those pins that had been there for the past 30 years. After wrestling with those then the teeth (if you could call them that) obviously needed to be removed. A little torch work and a heavy hammer persuaded them to wiggle loose enough to be removed. I figure I'm home free and I've only spent about an hour or so fooling around so I should be done in no time. When I went to weld the new base I realized it was a completely different configuration and would need to be welded essentially what seemed like backwards to me so that it would line up with th other teeth. Wasn't sure about that so I skipped it for now cuz I had a job to do and needed to get on the road. Well let me tell you, putting them little rubber loaded pins in place is no picnic! Tap, tap, tap to get it started and then needed to give it good blow to really get it going. Amazing how far those things could fly! On my hands an knees fishin' around under the work bench cuz I heard something go ping in that direction. Found what I was looking for and was finally able to get three new teeth in place. Problem here is that there are a total of five if you include the missing base. For the life of me I got no idea how to squeeze the pin in between the already attached teeth. No room to swing a hammer, couldn't figure a way to put some kind of clamp on 'em. Do you suppose the welded the comple base and tooth in place with no thought of ever replacing them? This is a 24" bucket, how many teeth should it have? I dug a nice big hole with only three and it seemed to work OK. Anybody able to offer some info? Thanks.

I'm not a fan of side pin teeth at all, I make no bones that I'm not. I have a Slide Sledge with side pin adapters, but that's a spendy tool for someone who doesn't need it on a frequent basis. For small side pin teeth, like on backhoe buckets, a Pin Master is an affordable alternative.

http://www.pinmaster.com/item.asp?iid=250

I just sqeese the pin together with a pair of vise gripps, and never had a problem. one good wack and there in place

I use the vise grip method works for me.