Aight, I think at long last I may actually have the power steering issue sorted. I wound up putting another Camaro pump I had in the shop on it on account of the metal shavings in the reservoir, put the Volvo regulator/piston/spring in the pump, swapped on a "new" rack from a '92 in the yard, added the cooler, and filled the system with about 2qt of Royal Purple power steering fluid.
I only got to drive it for about 30 minutes this evening, but I picked a hard uphill road with a lot of switchbacks, and at the top I didn't have any fluid puking out of the reservoir and the fluid itself wasn't all foamy.
I really hope this is the end of the issues with the steering. We'll see.
I did find however that on the highway, I again had a shimmy in the wheel when applying slight pressure to the left. I thought the lower control arm bolt had loosened up again, so I jacked it back up when I got home. Wasn't the control arm bolt...the strut gland nut on the passenger side had worked it's way loose. Come to think of it, I didn't check those for tightness when I put the struts on, so it may have very well been that way before. Oh well.
Dropped the strut out the top, popped the spring off, and gave the gland nut some blue thread locker and 18" pipe wrench lovin'. I think that'll hold.
For sanity's sake, I checked the drivers side too. That seemed fine.
Anywho, also found my long lost trailer hitch hardware, so I can set about getting that mounted tomorrow in order to drag either the utility trailer or the smoker up to the lodge for MountainMeet. Trailer lights are not gonna happen, I can tell you that much right now.
I'm hoping to get back by the alignment shop late this week and have the alignment checked, but if I don't make it, it drives straight enough that I'll just send it.