As a part of the annual inspection I endeavored to check the bolts holding the tailwheel spring and tailwheel to the airframe. These bolts take a lot of load and should be refreshed from time to time. As you can see from the photos, this refresher was long overdue. The plane ended up with not only new hardware, but a new tailwheel spring and a different tailwheel installed.
One of the photos show the forward tailwheel bolt removed from the airplane laying next to a new bolt that was installed in its place. You can easily see that the old bolt is bent! Also, in the closeup photo of the old tailwheel spring laying atop the new one, you can see how much the old spring has deflected from its original profile (the black spring in the background can be seen below the red spring on top).
I will soon know if this new installation offers a noticeable difference in ground handling. Stay tuned!
UPDATE: The new tailwheel installation works perfectly, and the ground handling is noticeably improved. It pays to check this stuff once in a while!