Hi Robin,
Delighted that the car has a ticket now
The speedo drive: I guess you have checked the speedo head is OK by spinning the gearbox end of the cable and seeing the needle move. After that, the speedo drive in the gearbox is a suspect. Before delving into the drive, have a check of the end of the speedo cable and check that the squared end is in good condition and has not rounded off. If they round off, it will not pick up drive from square drive in the gearbox end of things.
The speedo drive in the gearbox is very accessible as it is right on the end of the RH driveshaft. The gears are plastic and the big one picks up drive from the final drive pinion via 2 small lugs and these may not be properly mated in or broken. From the big gear, drive is transferred to to a smaller worm gear. If the speedo cable or speedo head seizes, the gears can strip. AS I say, the drive is dead easy to remove. Slip out the RH driveshaft and three bolts and it's in your hand
The Fan: I presume it's an A/C car. If so, the fans are entirely under control of the Bitron Unit. If they randomly come on at high speed then the sensor or connections to it are suspect and in general all connections to the Bitron unit. I'm not sure where it is on a 405 but if it's in a similar position to the Xantia (under the LH Headlamp) it's prone to getting damp and corroded pins.
Steering: I'bve had this after a tracking adjustment in the past and normally, given that everything else is in order (i.e. no worn bushes etc.) it's because the tracking has been wrongly set, either to the wrong figures or just simply badly done.
I saw news of the arrival of your new project in another forum we both frequent Robin

Looking forward to news on that one but I guess I'll have to look at the other forum for that!