Backhoe 1992 Ford 555c Backhoe Hydraulic steering line leak

[Burky96]

I have a leak within my steering lines somewhere in the front of the tractor. I have removed the engine cover, hydraulic reservoir, & radiator so that I can "see" where the leak is. This however leaves the hydraulic pump lines open (to & from reservoir & cooler). In order to check for a leak I must crank up the tractor so that the steering lines are under pressure. Of course when I do this hydraulic fluid gets pumped out onto the ground. Is there a way to seal off the "out hose" from the cooler to prevent this from happening? I thought about getting a pipe plug and use a hose clamp, but don't know if this will work under pressure.

I think the leak is coming from one of the 2 steering hoses that go into the steering cylinder as it has a worn spot on it.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks, Scott

Just a little update: I put the end of the hydraulic hose coming out of the cooler into the input hose to the pump and this worked great. No more fluid pumping out onto the ground. So I was able to run the tractor for several minutes to try to locate the leak. It appears that both of the cylinder hoses are good, but there is fluid coming out of the right cylinder where the cylinder is coming through the frame of the tractor.

[video]https://www.facebook.com/scott.burkhalter.94/videos/vb.713493421/10156808137558422/?type=2&video_source=user_video_tab[/video]