LS-6a Landing Gear Problem

My LS-6 gear collapsed and now will not lock down or
up. Has any other LS-6 drivers had this happen? What's
the fix?

I had the glider on the trailer cradle for assembly
and lowered the gear. I think the cradle was a little
too low and the gear contacted the ground prior to
the mechanism locking fully down. I didn't know that
it wasn't locked and pushed the handle to the locked
position. The gas strut retracted and allowed the
handle to lock down, without the gear being actually
locked. When I pushed the glider off the cradle, the
gear collapsed. When collapsed on the ground, the handle
was still in the locked-down position.

With plenty of help, I put the glider back on the cradle
and then tried to cycle the gear up and down. The handle
now will not go to the up position. It jams about
3/4 of the way to the up position, with the wheel fully
up in the wheel well. When I pull the handle to lower
the gear, the handle locks down, and the wheel lowers
but it will not lock down. If I put any force on the
wheel it collapses again.

I first thought the gas strut/spring was bad, so I
spent considerable time taking it out. It seems to
be working OK. The gas spring is about 5.9' long and
has about a 1.5' stroke. I can close it with about
20 or more pounds of force, and then it springs back
to the full extended position. So it functions OK.
But -- maybe the gas strut has lost some pressure
and should have a higher force?

I carefully took a mirror and flashlight and carefully
inspected every linkage, rod, crack, shaft, weld, and
rivet in the landing gear system for signs of damage.
Everything looks normal. The only thing that looks
abnormal is the angle of the arms coming off the shock/isolation
mounts on the rear of the wheel well wall.

Any ideas on what broke? How to fix it?

Mike