Gary
I got my pins from Doug Jennings, Tiger Auto, in Dayton.
There really is nothing that can be checked visually.
A cracked pin will look and act normally until another
excess stress cycle finally cracks it one last time
and it fails completely. Remember that all modern
airliners fly with pre-stressed (another way of saying
precracked) wing spars. As long as the stress load
never exceeds the crack load, the wing is good for
years of service. The same with the Tiger pin. If it
is cracked, it may work for years. The problem is
that there will be no warning when it fails.
As mentioned in other responses, the Tiger's
steering seems to apply huge stress load under
certain conditions, such as backing and turning.
Running straight on an interstate does not apply
a lot of stress on the pin.
One thing my metallurgist mentioned is that if
the pin cracked from such a large stress load, it
would make sense that the load be applied to
other points on the pin. This may explain the
many reports of the mounting bolts sheering.
I wrote a tech tip about how to check the pins.
Want a copy?
Dave
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