656 again. Houston we have a problem, and more ???

It started right up on the first try , but things went rapidly downhill from there. Horrible hydraulic type howling noise down under my feet, like a pump starving or a relief valve bypassing. Hytran is right up to full on the dipstick.

Clutch would not release at all. Any attempt to shift into gear met with grinding noises, no matter how long the clutch was held down, or whether the TA was in high or low. It took no effort whatsoever to depress the pedal, is this normal? I am only used to direct mechanically connected pedals.

Should the steering wheel spin freely when the engine is off? Again I'm not used to anything but direct mechanical connections. The power steering would not go left to start with, until I raised the front end with the loader and cycled the steering back and forth several times. After that, it would work, but the armstrong steering on my M is easier.

The loader is slower than molasses, I didn't spend a lot of time fooling with that, because I wanted to get it shut down before anything blew up.

Needless to say I didn't get to drive it.

The salesman said they will "try" to get it into the shop "sometime" and see what is wrong with it. He will call me when that happens. I am afraid that, depending on whether the dealer wants to fix it, the good deal is going to either inflate sky high, or degenerate into a project, which I am not interested in taking on right now.

I am not positive (someone please correct me if I am wrong) but I think that clutch pedal is a direct mechanical linkage to the clutch. If it took no effort to push the pedal, check the clutch spring. If it is broken, it would go really easy. More than likely though, the clutch pressure plate and the friction disc are stuck, rusted tight, or maladjusted and that is why you are unable to shift.

The steering wheel should not freewheel with the engine off (at least our Hydro's never did). That means either the check valve in the line is stuck allowing the fluid to bleed back into the rear end or the filter is plugged and the filter bypass valve kicked in. When that valve opens up it makes noise. Just a few ideas Our Hydro was pretty different from the gear drive model though, so check with someone who had an actual gear drive model just to confirm.

Allan