Hey, I have a komatsu pc35mr-2 outfitted with a john deere wedge coupler and john deere oem thumb for a 27d. It uses 35mm pins. The bucket pin broke right before Helene hit. One of the ears on the thumb got bent as a result. I bought a replacement oem pin, and because I am in the middle of recovering from helene flooding I didn't have time to straighten the thumb ear. I hammered the pin home, it went in fine. A day or so later, snap! The new pin broke. Cya $395. These pins are center bored for grease, with two cross drillings for the grease to get to the bushing in the dipperstick. Of course the pin snapped at one of these cross drillings. I want to replace this pin with a solid pin, and add a grease zerk to the end of the dipperstick. Would this be a big issue? I don't want to mess up the dipperstick obviously.
Many excavators have a grease zerk in the center of the dipper stick, either in a counterbore or a pipe sleeve to protect the zerk from damage so would be no issue for you to fit one in my opinion. I'm not familiar with your coupler or your thumb, but one thing I know from experience, if that coupler plate bottoms out against anything, the thumb components or the stick, before the bucket cylinder bottoms out either fully extended or fully retracted, then you will breaks pins and even pin ears. Might want to check that.