Massey 271 ? about power steering

[purplewg]

I have a 271 XE Massey and the other morning I went out started her up and turned the steering wheel and the front tires/wheels stayed straight. I shut it down, checked the hyd fluid and it was full. It was a bit cold for my area but not freezing. I let it idle for a few minutes while I went to get the manual to make sure there wasn't a separate steering reservoir. There isn't. I shut it down and rechecked the hyr fluid. I noticed I could turn the steering wheel without the engine running which isn't good. I started it back up and it worked fine.

A couple days later I had the same deal but I just let it idle for a minute or two and it started working just fine. The first day I had let it idle much longer and still no steering but it eventually did start to work.

There is a hydraulic cylinder up front by the radiator that turns a pitman arm configuration and I could see it was not working when I turned the steering wheel so either it is going bad or it wasn't getting good flow I would suspect. There are no wet spots or leaks around this cylinder.

Any opinions on this?

Thanks

 

[jlsmith]

Have you checked your steering filter.

 

[purplewg]

Have you checked your steering filter.

No, I can't say that I did. When I looked in the manual I didn't see any mention of one on it. I do have the big hydraulic filter under the right side running board. I will certain take another look.

Fired it up yesterday and it worked right away. Seems to be cool related.