Clogged PS sintered bronze filter

If you blew through the sintered bronze filter on the Vickers PS pump and you got plenty of air through the sintered bronze filter would you think it could be the cause of poor power steering?

Apparently, bronze filters range in size from 5 microns and up. I discovered that non-working power steering started working when I removed the filter. I removed it to put it in Al's car. His car suffered a depreciation in boost when I swapped it into his reserve. All this time I thought I had bad rebuilds.

Does anyone know what micron filter this is supposed to be? Clearly the wrong one could have easily have been substituted at some point. I think it's time to have some made, or cut from tubular stock. They appear to be 70mm OD and 60mm ID. The two I have are different heights. I would think that a taller filter and shorter spring would be a good flow solution. I see no reason why better flow would ever be a bad thing.

The pump pick-up in in the bottom. The low-pressure return is in the side of the reserve. Fluid fills the space between the filter media and low-pressure return. It's capped off with a disc that only allows fluid to flow through the sintered bronze media. The disc acts as a pressure relief valve allowing the disc to lift bypassing the filter when there's too much resistance through the filter.

Could I trouble you to measure the height of your bronze filter so I can buy or make the right size?

https://hosting.photobucket.com/albu...080&fit=bounds

https://hosting.photobucket.com/albu...080&fit=bounds