Ford 3400 Hydraulic Line leak

I ran my Ford 3400 (1967ish) today and noticed fluid pouring out from a leak somewhere under the seat, and the three point hitch had dropped the pallet forks flat on the ground and showed no signs of responding so I shut off the tractor as soon as I noticed the problem.

Further investigation shows that the larger of the two (of what I presume to be) hydraulic rigid tubes has a larger than pin-hole leak from which the fluid poured out.

Is there someway to patch this hole, or somewhere I can get a replacement rigid tube? The tractor is essentially useless at this point, and I just had to roll the bale of hay by hand to the back pasture since I didn't want to run the tractor anymore for fear of the hydraulic motor eventually seizing up without fluid.

I'm fairly handy, and most everything on this tractor seems like it bolts on and off, so would be willing to do whatever I need to to repair it. One suggestion has been to cut the pipe fully and work a compression fitting between the two ends, another was to again cut the pipe and fit a rubber hose over the resulting ends as a patch, still another was to use cold weld, or something similar to patch it.

Any help, assistance or comments would be greatly appreciated, as although she's temperamental at best, she's been worth her considerable weight.

I"ve brazed them successfully with oxy-acet torch, as well as welded them with the wire feed. You"re lucky you didn"t get hit with the fluid, considering the break was under the seat. High pressure hyd fluid is nothing to mess with.

It's essentially under the right hand step, so the fluid itself hit that and spared me from being hit thankfully.

However, oxy-acet or welding equip is not currently in my arsenal of tools, so not sure what I would need for that.

Another option explained to me would be cutting the pipe and removing it, and replacing with a flexible hydraulic line connected to the stubs left with compression fittings, but again I'm not sure the best way to go.

Well, Why didn't You tell him What happens when that high pressure hyd fluid hits him? Bob L. The high pressure fluid WILL shoot into your skin And can get into your blood stream! Can really do the number on you. Be careful.

Ford used several versions of what it sounds like you're talking about
I'd check on a new one first, save patching for a last resort

any of these look like it?
<a href="http://s33.photobucket.com/user/Joecdeere/media/34000001_zpsde8b267e.jpg.html" target="_blank"> </a>

I would second the brazing, but I would use refrigeration grade silver solder. Braze tends to get brittle and crack. Silver solder stands up to vibration and stress much better.
I would just remove the hose and silver solder it, and put it back on.
Most of the time, a plumbers torch would be suffient to solder it, but oxy-acetylene is better and quicker.

Any indication why it developed the hole? Was it rubbed through, hit by something, or did it rust through?

If it rusted, I would be looking at replacing it with the proper line.

If it rubbed through, it could be brazed or tig welded, but I would definitely remove it first. Trying to repair it on the tractor will cause burned oil residue inside the line, and the escaping gases will keep blowing the hot weld away.

JoeM,

Actually, bottom right section of that image number 52, but the one on the left looks like it.

I found a similar drawing online, however, I've not found anyone who can supply the line, can anyone point me to a supplier? Something like this would take some elbow grease as things have not been touched in many-a-year, but it's still just bolt-off, bolt-on essentially so something I could replace. Finding the part is the difficulty though.

I BELIEVE it rusted through as it's in an odd spot and doesn't look like anything rubbed, in which case I would need to find a supplier.

I don't have the tools to do a weld and no one to borrow from, but I'm sure I could rent a unit for a day, however, if as you said it would be better to replace since it appears to have rusted through and the whole line could be compromised, I need to know a supplier for that rigid tube/manifold part.