Ok, so I wanted to give an update. Parts that I replaced over the weekend (and the project didn't go as planned, at all):
ZJ tie rod w/ TREs (Moog, bought new)
Steering box from a Durango (JY find)
Draglink from another xj (JY find as well)
JCR steering box spacer ('nuff said)
Power steering pump w/reservoir (new, thanks to the plastic "barb" breaking while trying to remove the steering box hose...)
I did a "driveway" alignment and also had a heck of a time getting the air out of the PS pump. The first time I started it after bleeding, the pump dropped a little, so I added fluid. The pump "gargled" and it looked like I made a whipped frappe in the reservoir....I kept repeating the process after letting it set until it finally started working. It does, however, seem to groan loudly at full turns, so Im not sure if theres air still in there or I got a bad pump out of the box. I also discovered a "broken" tie rod on the passenger side. While undoing the drag link, I was removing the castle nut and noticed that the nut was spinning but wasn't coming off. The entire thing was spinning: nut and tie rod thread. Since I didn't need it any way, I torched it off.
Back to the alignment. After setting it to approximately 1/16" toe-in and setting my steering wheel straight via the drag link, the jeep drives....basically the same. My steering isnt tight, it still has a dead spot. If the jeep is sitting still and the wheels are straight, my steering wheel is straight - the airbag "box" is 180 degrees. But, when I start to drive it, I have to move the wheel to an acute angle, roughly 45 degrees to go straight. If I leave it 180 degrees, it starts straying to the right. At the acute angle, it goes straight down the road, even if my hands are off the wheel. There also feels like a dead spot in the steering, where if I turn left, theres understeer. Right, feels like oversteer. Should I set the toe to 1/4" in instead?
This is almost exactly how the jeep behaved when I first bought it. So right now I feel like Ive replaced a bunch of parts that I didn't have/need to. I read about how replacing the steering box and putting on the ZJ TR made the jeep feel much "tighter", but that hasn't been my experience at all.
If it isn't these parts, then what else could it be? At this point, the only things I can think of are my steering stabilizer (its the one that came on the xj, so I have no idea how old it is), ball joints (though theres no play when I do the push/pull method), hubs (no noise as Im traveling down the road/stopping/etc), steering shaft (how easy do those bend??), or bent axle housing (my wheels arent canted and they spin normally with no wobble). I didn't pull the axle shafts because of it being the holidays, the last thing I wanted to do was break a seal and have no way of getting a replacement in a decent amount of time...so Im still not certain that the axle housing is straight or not.