Blew a power steering hose!

[IMCA38]

Yesterday, I was giving my yard a much overdue mowing with my MF 1225. Part way through, I noticed some "clouds" when I was turning at the edge of the yard. At first, I thought it was just some limestone dust from my drive being blown by the RFM. A short time later, I happened to spot a spray coming out from under the front of the tractor. Upon investigation, I discovered that the hydraulic hose to the steering cylinder had what appeared to be a pin hole that was spraying oil when I turned the wheel. I beat a hasty retreat to the shop and shut it down to investigate. The hose is shielded with plastic wire sheathing, and when I pulled it back, discovered that the hose was in bad shape. (Not sure exactly why though) Much to my surprise, it was pretty easy to get the hose off. I did have to pull the plastic cover below the steering wheel off to get to the end on the steering box. However six screws and that came right off. The hose was a pretty simple affair, about 3' long with straight ends. I knew they would be metric though. Being as this was about 3pm on Saturday, I figured I was sunk until Monday. I called a friend who is an engineer in a local factory and he agreed. The 2 most likely places to get a hose are both 8-5 M-F types of places, and both are clear across town. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif
Then I decided to take a shot and call the nearby brand "X" auto parts store. (Hint- Michael Waltrip does their commercials) They told me that their store didn't make hoses, but the sister store across town did. I called the sister store and described my predicament, the gentleman there was cautiously optimistic, but offered no promises. I tore out of the house at 4pm to get there as they close at 5pm. I made it about 4:30 and he started looking things over. He immediately found ends that looked similar, but the book indicated that the threads were 19/in, not at all a standard cut. His thread gauge didn't have a 19 blade and he didn't have a male fitting that was cut like that. After some consideration, we agreed that everything looked as much the same as what we could tell. I decided to go for it, and left a few minutes later with a new hose. Amazingly enough, it bolted right up and I had it back together in about 15 minutes. That in itself is amazing as an oil change on that beast can take all afternoon! Once I had it together, I checked the hydro and realized how lucky I was to catch it when I did and the oil was right to the end of the dipstick.
I was able to get back out and mow a couple of hours after supper, and better yet, I don't have to deal with this issue tomorrow!!
(Sorry I don't have any pics to share) /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif