Lack of lubrication or it was contaminated with dirt or moisture.
Your rack and pinion can go bad for a number of reasons, a wreck, hitting the side of the curve with one of your tires too hard, driving your car with bad suspension will put extra strain on your rack and pinion causing it to go bad , and normal wear and tear
Go to a mechanic
the rotor fong on the brick and bracken causes the rack and pinion to slip. Change the synchromesh, and eat retsyn.
go buy a chilton manual
I think you mean RACK and pinion backlash. This is the amount of space between teeth in the gears of the rack and pinion which would cause a slight reverse motion before contact is re established to go forward.
go to youtube they have a video on this , very good animation.
about $175.00 tops. (depends where you go)
None ,if you are leaking fluid from your boots the rack is worn and needs replaced,the boots are made to keep dirt and debris out ,not to keep fluid in .
Possibly faulty pump, low fluid level, bad belt, rack and pinion, electrical surge and failure or simply a piece of junk car with a computer problem
pump will usally make noise while full of fluid rack will stick when cold or low rpm and work fine at times if its sometimes the problem look at rack.if fluid is dirty or real dark go to rack
fluid can be leaking from pump or from hoses or seals in pwer steering i doubt very much it will leak from rack and pinion as the fluid does not actually go to the rack and pinion
You may have the lemon pump, if this is all that goes wrong count yourself lucky. I've heard about the rack going bad, this may have affected the pump, not the other way around.