Okay, sounds odd, but here goes:

Bought a RedHead steering gear, R&R'ed, followed directions for filling: fill, move steering wheel back and forth 15-20 times (off ground engine off), top up and leave overnight. Check in morning, top up, move steering wheel back and forth 15-20 times, check and run. Works perfect.

Three days ago my wife was coming out of the grocery store and two guys point out to her she has a significant fluid leak. There on the ground was a puddle of red fluid. She drove home and told me. I checked everything and saw nothing that would indicate a leak. All connections dry, no drips. I check the reservoir on the pump and to my surprise, it was dry. I filled, ran engine, all is well. I watched for a leak since then and nothing. This morning I go check the truck and under the pump on the ground...a red puddle. The pump has been washed clean of dust by fluid pouring out the top of the cap just like a radiator overheat.

Mystified. Will pull it into the shop to recheck everything with a mirror. To the best of my knowledge the hydraulic lines cannot be reversed on the steering gear, and I didn't remove the hoses from the back on the pump.

????'s

 

I suspect you still have air in the system. Is it nice and quiet, or does it moan/howl when turning?

Did you run the engine with the front off the ground, and turn steering from lock to lock a few times as well?

 

Very quiet when running, and yes, while wheels off the ground I did turn the wheel lock to lock.

 

Sounds like the engine WAS NOT running when he tried to bleed the system.

 

Okay, if nothing can be found, warm it up and watch it right?

Took the truck for a spin, checked the mail, ran to the hardware store, came back. I was inside my house for about 10 minutes then checked under the truck. Looks like roughly 1/2 a cup of fluid leaked, the spot was three inches across. While I was looking at it, a saw a drop fall. Pop hood, all is well, the pump is not wet, so it wasn't being pumped out the top. Crawled under truck just as I saw another drop fall: output shaft/Pittman arm shaft seal leaking. Crap!
The first RedHead gear I had shipped up had a damaged input shaft. About 10 of the splines had been squashed so badly I would not have been able to get the pinch block over them. They shipped me another without charge. Now this.

 

Time for another one..... IS their quality slipping that badly?

 

I took photos of the first ones' input shaft and emailed them to Steve(?) at RedHead. He told me they looked like they'd had a pair of Vice-Grips put on the input. He sounded suspicious of me, that I'd messed up the shaft, and I am okay with that as I am sure he's seen that kind of damage, but I told him it does look like that, but the damage would have been on the other side of the shaft too, and this was only on a few splines.

He also told me he'd brought in all the heads of departments to look at the photos and all swear they'd never ship something like that, the input shaft would have been tossed at tear-down, let alone go all the way through; who knows?

And now on the second one the seal is leaking, how do you miss that? I would assume they'd run over pressure just to make sure any possible seal leaks would become visible in the limited time they have during testing.

Hell, I prolly have to make a video of this this time to send. At least they sent one out to me immediately and it was here in a couple days, they do stand behind their product.