Here's the deal with LS-3/4/6/7's. When the shock absorbing gear is
under duress (as in bouncing on a rough landing), as the rear member
absorbs the up-down motion, the geometry of the gear is changing. Not
much, but enough to make the retraction rod (and therefore the retract
handle) start MOVING! This is an undesirable situation, because the
gear can collapse ( I hate it when that happens). Rolleden Snyder, in
their wisdom, delt with this by placing a gas strut in the retration
rod going to the retract handle, so now the gas strut absorbes the
slight motions and that allows the retract handle to stay snugly in
its assigned down position. Problem solved and everything was fine
until the gas struts started loosing their poop and we were right back
to the gear collapsing, only now it could collapse on a very gentle
landing. Ah ha, said RS, lets replace the gas strut with a solid bar
because the fix is worse than the disease and we'll just hope that
little handle stays where its supposed to be.

One can check the condition of ones gas strut by pushing forward on
the rear "H" member of ones landing gear as in, try to make it
collapse. It should only move about a half inch and spring right
back.................if not, one might be in for a rude surprise on
the next takeoff or landing. Oh yeah, recommend this check only be
performed with the fuselage jacked up on the trailer saddle. One other
little tid-bit, make sure the fuselage is jacked up high enough to
allow the gear to completely extend without touching the ground
or ..................see above about gear collapsing on takeoff.
Cheers,
JJ