....... I mean really greased up. So when you're whacking away, they might slide a little easier.
If they are really greased well and you hang the bucket rather than putting it on the ground you will be able to push them out by hand.
Nobody should be beating excavator bucket pins with any size of hammer be it a club or sledge.
This works for ANY size excavator be it a 1ton mini or a 385 the only difference is the weight of the pins and the height of the lugs above the ground.
With no bucket on the machine place the dipper between the front lugs of the bucket and insert a steel pin SMALLER than the bucket pin. A bigger machine will need a bigger bar due to the bucket weight.
Pick the bucket off the ground slightly.
Now crowd the bucket ram until the rear link is in line. As the bucket is hanging it can be rocked ever so slightly to get exact alignment for the rear pin. Insert rear pin.
Now open the bucket ( close the ram ) and move the dipper out until the weight of the bucket is hanging on the rear link and the front bar is free.
Remove the bar.
As the bucket is now hanging it can easily be moved by hand to get final alignment of the pin.
Removal is simply reverse the operation.
The hard part first time is finding just where the balance point is. It might be handy to test lift a bucket on each of its lugs to see just how it hangs.
Common sense dictates that a SUITABLE sized bar MUST be used relative to the size of machine and weight of bucket.
DONT try and pick a 20t machine size bucket up on a wooden broom handle :Banghead