Thanks to everyone on the list who responded, the best advice turned
out to be to fill up the reservoir, start the engine and turn the
steering wheel back and forth to allow the air bubbles to purge from
the system.  This was suggested by Mike Collum. It did not work at
first but after a while I checked the level, it was down, but without
a pool of red liquid on the floor - suggesting that it really had
gone into the system to replace the air.  So I topped it up and tried
again;  audible and feelable improvement, topped it up and tried
again, this time it was fine, as good as it was before the leak got
bad (as in, not completely silent but no noisier than any other older
power steering vehicle). So, the air bubbles were what produced the
near-death experience.  Thanks again to all who responded.

Steve

PS And when it does eventually go I have a whole lot of leads on who
to buy the parts from :-]

>At 12:10 AM 2/1/2005 -0600, you wrote:
>>First off, thanks to everyone who responded to my "need some adwice" plea.
>>
>>Tonight I have a new problem.  I think I've let the steering fluid
>>leak in my '90 GL go on for too long.  I put off fixing the leak
>>because the pipe is so expensive, and thought it would be OK to keep
>>on topping up the fluid every time the whine became noticeable, but
>>today it got to the point where it whines all the time even when I've
>>only just topped up the reservoir.
>>
>>Does it sound like I've wrecked the pump?  Where _is_ the pump anyway?
>>
>>Steve