I flew with many, in their day they where one of the very few retract sets easily available.
Having said that, time moved on real quick... CG retracts didn't.
The oppretive word here is RETRACT. They did... often when you needed it LEAST!
To be honest... it was more a servo problem than the retract mechanicals.
If I was to build a 70's pattern plane I'd try and source some.
Simply for original (not to mention memory) sake.