The steering problem still persists
I think I may have narrowed it down now, after ruling out most of the suspension components, ive replaced both droplinks, one of which was the original, both original track rod ends, which has made it a bit sharper.
Earlier I noticed a little bit of extra noise from the pump, and whilst its not the noisiest pump in the world, its not as quiet as any of the other cars.
Anyway, by jerking on the wheel hard

the power assistance drops drastically, the slower you turn, the less noticeable it appears.
At the moment i am not convinced it a rack issue, and there are no leaks anyway with only a minimal amount of play to be felt with the engine off.
What did worry me was the state of the power steering fluid, it was near enough black, and its taken 4 oil changes to get it acceptable!
Whilst this has improved it, the actually problem is still there.
I remember on my Activa S2, that steering assistance when cold or within 2 minutes of start up was minimal if you turned the wheel very quickly, i.e a mini roundabout, when warm the problem went away, i always put this down to a pressure issue with the sheer amount of duties the pump had to carry out.
And i suspect its the same with the Volvo. The old oil has simply worn out the pump and when a pressure demand is placed upon it, it cannot keep up.
I would be interested in other people's thoughts on this!
Otherwise its running well engine wise, its very strong and characterful.
It will be lowered this weekend, and a new top mount bush fitted to the engine steady, i did obtain a Powerflex one 2nd hand but its very harsh, plus the lower steady bush is worn and placing extra pressure on it, so i've ordered an OE top bush and the lower one which is bolted to the subframe may be a poly replacement, noise should not be transmitted in the same way.