I have been looking at power steering racks and the prices to me are out
landish. On my '85 van with power steering, I had a bad leak.I was in
Alaska at the time when I bought the van. I got a really good price because
of that leak. The car lot was afraid of cost and nobody really didn't know
what to do with it. The nearest deslership was 150 miles away.  Distance
from anything is one reason so many Alaskans become very self sufficient.
The dealership for VW wanted $1250 plus parts to fix it. I bought a seal
kit from the parts department for $85. A couple of hours later it was going
back in the van. Never had a problem again.

I don't know if you can do this now, but sure seems a better way to go.
$500 plus or minus for a power steering rack seems mighty steep to me.