Combines 973 auger retracting finger supportsIJ

Hello JD, Can't help you on the auger fingers, but was thinking of your mud problems over there. I think it was back in 1984 that we had a muddy fall here and we put a set of steel tracks on my uncle's IH 1460 to harvest crops. Don't do that as all I can remember is cleaning them off of mud and putting them on timbers so they didn't freese to the ground at 11 pm at nite on thanksgiving. No fun! We had one neighbor that put on his JD 8820 a steel wheel(like a old tractor with cleats) dual on the 30.5 tires. It was just big enough not to touch the road for hi-way travel. He didn't do to bad of a job with that setup. Hope the sun comes out soon for you! later, Ilnewholland

JD, I have had the shaft out of a 973 auger, and it's not easy. One end has a bolt in it that can be taken out and you can slide the new finger holders on. you can put the JD split type on, but the fingers are held on with a bolt and self locking nut. It's much harder to change than just pulling the snap pin on the NH. I'm not sure of the JD finger length and the shaft size may be dfferent.I haven't seen one that wore out before.I replaced the entire auger on a couple of my 30' platforms because they broke. The last time I was able to get a full fingered one. The new auger is a tremendous improvement for even feeding. It takes a couple of guys a day to change the whole auger. Good luck!