Steering and bucket failure IH 424

I always wanted to learn about tractors, so when a friend of the family lost her husband and needed help with mowing, I volunteered. Her 1965 IH 424 gas would be my classroom! And how. While mowing, the bucket had to be either high enough to see under, or low enough to see over, but it leaked down continuously and had to be raised a little about every minute or so. No problem, I thought, I can deal with that. A little issue like that isn't going to stop me. There's mowing to be done!
Sunday I was mowing along on the edge of a field, trying to reclaim some of the area, when the ground started sloping away to the left. As I steered right, I realized I wasn't climbing back up to level ground and absent some quick action I was going down this hill and it wasn't going to be pretty. The steering responded enough to get back up, but then I saw the bucket was almost on the ground. I tried to raise the bucket, pushing down on the lever beneath the seat, but there was no response. The steering wheel would just spin uselessly. I had to go to work soon, so I just shut her down and covered the seat with plastic to protect it from the rain.
Luckily, I'd had the foresight to order the Owner's Manual and the Service Manual from Yesterdays Tractors for this beast, so I started reading. According to the Owner's Manual, there is no mechanical connection between the steering wheel and the front wheels! WHAT??
So my question is, have any of you experienced this kind of failure, and what are the likely suspects? I will have a chance to go back down to it Thursday. I think the dual failure must be a valuable clue. I got the idea for brake steering in reverse to get it back to the barn from another post here. I may try that. Thanks for your input.

2 things come to mind, if you were tipped so far that the tractor was sliding sideways, maybe the the hydraulic pump was starved for fluid. Or, if you were trying to raise the loader at the same time as steering there might not be enough pump flow for both. When I worked for JD there was a priority valve to prevent that.

Sounds like due to the slope you found yourself on, the pump started sucking air rather than oil. Check the hydraulic oil level and and add some to get to level ground and check it on the level and add as needed.
Loren

(quoted from post at 06:26:05 06/19/19) Sounds like due to the slope you found yourself on, the pump started sucking air rather than oil. Check the hydraulic oil level and and add some to get to level ground and check it on the level and add as needed.
Loren

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My IH 454 was leaking oil from the power steering control valve so I had to constantly turn the steering wheel in the same direction to go straight until I had it fixed.

Tractors on slopes take some caution. It might have been a good thing that the loader was near the ground or we might not be talking to you right now.

I agree with what everyone has said. Check the hydraulic fluid level. If you need to add some make sure it's the right type for the tractor.

For unfamiliar fields I would walk it first to make sure that there are no hidden hazards (holes, equipment, wells, posts etc)

Be safe my friend!

Larry

I agree with others, you are probably low on fluid. As far as no mechanical steering connection, no there isn't. But, on systems of this type, the unit under the steering wheel acts as a manual pump to provide some level of steering control if the engine is not running. However, if there is no fluid to manually pump, you won't have steering control.

Hi, you said ground was sloping to the left, the hydraulic suction filter is on the right front of the seat just above the top of transmission cover, so yes if hydraulic reservoir is low in hydraulic oil then the suction filter could have sucked air. There is only the one hydraulic reservoir under the seat and filler plug is a pipe plug behind the seat onto of the reservoir. Look down thru the filler hole and you will see a short of shelf, full level is when shelf is covered.

If it has an IH 2000 loader on it, it may a modified hydraulic system to use the trans/diff as an aux hydraulic reservoir for the loader. You can tell if it has this modification by lifting the seat and if there is a flat plate with two hydraulic lines connected and if it has a hydraulic pump mounted out in front of the rad then it has this modification and the trans/diff has to be filled with Hytran hydraulic oil as well as the reservoir under the seat.

You may have trouble getting the hydraulic pump to prime so back tractor back up the slope and make sure front wheels are pointing down the slope so the hydraulic oil will run to the pump in front of the engine and prime itself.

Also agree on the fluid level. I had a similar problem years ago with my 2424, going straight up a steep slope skidding firewood. Turned out to need fluid.


Tim

Thanks to all who responded here with helpful comments! I had a chance to go back to the tractor Saturday. It started right up and all hydraulics worked fine, so I began mowing again. In about 20 minutes I heard thunder and saw that the sky was darkening. I headed back to the barn. When I got to the top of the hill and turned around to back in, the hydraulics stopped working again. I had to leave it right outside the barn. I came back Sunday morning and tried it again. Started right up, no issues. I had to go to work soon, so I just backed it in the barn and disconnected the battery cable. Now I think I have some more clues. Both failures happened after 20 or 30 minutes of operation. I'm thinking it has something do with getting warmed up. Has anyone had an experience like this? What say ye? Thanks for your help.