Sometimes you just get lucky, which is rare with this car!
I’ve been nursing a power steering leak on my 88 XJS for 6 months now! The high pressure hose was saturated and it was a small leak, but enough where I had to top off once a month.
I was actually about to order all the hoses and while in there, the steering rack poly bushings, and grudgenly do this terrible job now that I have more time at home. But XKs in California is shuttered, so I couldn’t order the parts.
Then something clicked in my head, I remembered that whenever the car front was up on jack stands, the p/s leaked really bad. Could it be leaking from the pump?
So I took a look at low pressure hose clamp at pump, and tightened it. It would just keep turning. The clamp was bad! Pulled hose, put on new clamp, the leak is gone!!! Apparently, it was leaking along the low pressure hose (hiding underneath heat wrap) and drenching the high pressure hose.
I’ll still eventually replace hoses and rack bushings (they don’t look new), but I can easily put it off until next winter.
I had a similar experience on my ‘88; slow leak from the power steering that seemed to be the high pressure hose. Decided to check the easy stuff first and found the low pressure return hose had a loose clamp at the pump reservoir. It was disturbed most likely when I replaced the rack bushings (even though I had unbolted the cooler to avoid damaging it). Clamp was ok on mine.
