Thanks John, Here's the reservoir in all it's glory. Which one is the square one? The thing about it is the leak was over a long enough time that I didn't have to use the removal baster to get the fluid out of the reservoir. Already mostly empty. There's fluid on so much below it that I can't localize where it was leaking from. I'll replace the two hoses as a start. Please chime in with any thoughts.
All the best,
Josh

 

Well, your bottom hose is wet, so i would venture a guess that it is the one that's leaking. As you can see, they are both held on with clamps to the fittings.
In your year model, you might not have the square shaped one.

 

I took the reservoir and hoses off. As usual I found multiple possible culprits to explain the leak. The longer hose attached to the side of the reservoir is clearly a replacement and is labeled “heater hose“. Probably not the best for pressure line ATF fluid. The shorter line attached to the bottom looks more original but is clearly leaking where it joins the reservoir. At the banjo bolt where it mated to the pump it had two copper sealing rings that I think should’ve been the same sizes but were slightly different. I will get all of this replaced and we will see what happens.

 

Oh shiit. Get that out of there. Use the right hose, or - you're gonna be hosed.

 

the longer line is a return hose,
but its not made for Hydraulic fluid.

go to your FLAPS and get a few feet of trans cooler hose

 

OK, got power steering reservoir all back in with the correct ATF hoses and fluids. A couple of questions: 1 There's no filter for these early metal reservoirs is there? 2 Any DFW experts know a shop that restores the original rubber hose to metal tube crimp on this return line to the reservoir? My parts car had a very nice original hose, but the rubber is looking crackly. The one shop I dropped into said they couldn't do it. Maybe it's not worth the trouble. The current setup with hoses clamped to metal tubes is holding just fine, but it would be nice to get it correct again.
Next step I think will require me to learn more about this CIS system. I had to run the car to circulate the power steering fluid. Car started fine cold. I let it run a few minutes and then shut it off to refill the reservoir. It seemed starved of fuel and didn't want to start again. On to the next phase.

 

You can buy the proper hose from one of our vendors, but of it's just the return line and not the high pressure hose, you can just clamp a rubber line onto the metal fitting and will be fine.

Your hot start problem is probably an issue with your WUR (warm up regulator) or with the CIS setup in general where it starts when cold because the cold start injector is helping, but when its warm that doesn't contribute.

 

I'm going to call this thread done because the title no longer applies. This 1978 happily starts every time I turn the key now! No power steering leaks either. Tune in for the next problem: Fuel pump amp draw.

Thanks for all of your help!