B737 captain discovered that the nosewheel steering was inoperative after pushback and called mainte...

Narrative:

After pushback; we waved off ground crew. We saw the communication bag; tow bar; tug; two personnel and nose gear pin streamer. After completing flow items and the before taxi checklist; we called for taxi. I then realized we had no nose wheel steering control. The tiller would move to the right but there was no left authority control input.we notified ATC and held our position. We contacted ops and requested that maintenance assist us. Maintenance personnel arrived and using their headset informed us the nose gear steering pin was still installed. After removal; we continued taxi for departure with no further incident. It turned out that the ground personnel had removed the pin and streamer; however; the head of the pin broke off during removal. This left the shaft of the pin still inserted in the receptacle. The ground personnel held in his hand just the 'T' of the pin with the streamer attached. That is what we saw and what the ground personnel assumed to be a proper removal of the pin. The pin had failed/broken at the head of the pin. We learned of this failure by contacting maintenance via radio after our departure. No further issues occurred and we continued to destination.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: B737 Captain discovered that the nosewheel steering was inoperative after pushback and called Maintenance. Maintenance found that the nosewheel steering lockout pin had sheared off at the head. The push back crew removed only the head and the streamer; but not the shaft.

Narrative: After pushback; we waved off Ground Crew. We saw the communication bag; tow bar; tug; two personnel and nose gear pin streamer. After completing flow items and the Before Taxi Checklist; we called for taxi. I then realized we had no nose wheel steering control. The tiller would move to the right but there was no left authority control input.We notified ATC and held our position. We contacted Ops and requested that Maintenance assist us. Maintenance personnel arrived and using their headset informed us the nose gear steering pin was still installed. After removal; we continued taxi for departure with no further incident. It turned out that the Ground personnel had removed the pin and streamer; however; the head of the pin broke off during removal. This left the shaft of the pin still inserted in the receptacle. The Ground personnel held in his hand just the 'T' of the pin with the streamer attached. That is what we saw and what the Ground personnel assumed to be a proper removal of the pin. The pin had failed/broken at the head of the pin. We learned of this failure by contacting Maintenance via radio after our departure. No further issues occurred and we continued to destination.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.

Attributes
ACN	1291641
Time
Date	201508
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Place
Locale Reference	LAX.Airport
State Reference	CA
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	B737-700
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Taxi
Flight Plan	IFR
Component
Aircraft Component	Nosewheel Steering
Person 1
Function	Captain Pilot Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 227
Events
Anomaly	Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy Ground Event / Encounter Other / Unknown

B737 captain discovered that the nosewheel steering was inoperative after pushback and called maintenance. Maintenance found that the nosewheel steering lockout pin had sheared off at the head. The push back crew removed only the head and the streamer; but not the shaft.