JD 3020 Steering Cylinder Leak?

Hey guys,

Have a 3020 that is leaking pretty badly--but I can't quite tell where, hoping for some experienced hands and eyes to give me
some frequent areas to check.

This just started a couple weeks ago and is pretty heavy when I'm using the tractor. Yesterday I dropped all the hydraulic
oil, checked/cleaned the sump screen (clean) and replaced the hyd and trans filters. Topped back up with fluid and went to work.
No change.

Pulled the cowl and the key/light panel and can see where it's coming down through, power washed inside there out as well as I
could to get a better view. At the moment there is a lot of oil around the steering cylinder, where the 4 bolts are, however,
I'm not 100% convinced that's the culprit (or maybe it's hope?). The rate that it's coming out of the tractor when you're
running it and what I see on that cylinder top doesn't seem to add up. I'd expect to see it just pouring out of there, and it's
not. I don't see any fittings leaking leading into the cylinder--but it appears that there is some sort of foam under the hood
between the firewall and where all the lines come in? That foam is saturated and so I'm suspecting something under the hood on
the other side of the FW--so I'm going to pull that today and look there.

There is a rubber line with a hose clamp on it at the top of the cylinder--what is that? I'm having a hard time orienting
myself in the deere parts diagram looking for that:

https://partscatalog.deere.com/jdrc/sidebyside/equipment/76112/referrer/navigation/pgId/229867


Any tips before I start digging deeper?


Joe

The little line is a bleed or drain line from the priority valve, the purpose here is to drain the back side of the priority valve and Deere ran the drain line to the valve for it to return that route, it can be a leaker..you can make this line out of a steel break line to improve it. Check it over and blow it clean for inspection,some times the fitting o-rings get brittle and leak,if you need to rebuild it I can do that here for you .

Wash underneath the bottom and all around the hydraulic pump there are several places that can leak underneath there

Thanks all.. I think I found it.

I think it's AR26813. It's hard to tell from the diagram, but, what it had done was rub on the firewall and looks like it wore a fine cut in the line where it goes through the FW. I power washed the heck out of everything under the dash, and, it was much easier to see/clean with the hood off. I pulled up all the nasty old oil soaked foam and was able to see it pizzle out when tractor running and I pulled that line off the firewall. I managed to boot it with some rubber hose and a few small clamps until I can get a new one. It doesn't look super pleasant to replace, but, it's also not the worst line to have to replace in there.

I figure the boot will last for a little while, at least. No more rapid dripping, though, I need to let things settle and see how low the hyd fluid is, I had it topped yup yesterday and just moving a few hay racks around and doing some cleaning left it below the fill line--we'll see if my boot works once it's full.

Tim: I was able to see that little loop of rubber hose, it didn't go where I expected, however, it looked to be in good shape. I was pretty pleased to see that the oil was, indeed, dripping down on the cylinder and not seeping from around it!

J