I know I'm late to the thread here but wanted to mention something about the cheaper stainless steel swivel pins you find on amazon and e-bay. When I did mine, I talked with the owner of the company where I purchased my swivel pin who actually makes them. His are heat treated and according to him, that's the big difference from his and the $30 SS swivel pins you see on amazon and e-bay (I paid $160 from him). He was telling me that dimensionally, they are perfect and fit right in but since they are not heat treated, over time they being to deform.
Now I realize he may have been giving me a line of bull, but I am skeptical when I see that big of a difference in price and assuming most of the cheaper ones come out of China, I'm sure I paid more than I really needed to but it left me comfortable that I would not have to worry about it. This was also the second time on my second boat I did this same repair and the first one was also SS at around $100 at the time which was about 13 years ago so that $30 had me skeptical right from the start.
As part of the job, I also replace the u-bolt in the transom ring with a hardened u-bolt from the same company which he claims is stronger and does a better job of holding the assembly together.
