blew something up inside my steering box?!

Well...the title sayes it all...

I went to straiten my wheels in the driveway, engine off, and as i turned the wheel (which seemed a bit stiffer than normal) i heard a loud pop followed by a hiss, like pressure bleeding off. Got out and saw about half a quart of power steering fluid had blown past the cap on the pump and was all over the kmember, and ground.

I cleaned it up, refilled the now nearly empty resevoir and went for a test drive...and man its all over the place!! make a left turn and it pulls HARD to the left, make a right turn and it pulls HARD to the right!!

So I took it to an alignment shop today, for a long overdue alignment, and he said that the steering box had gone bad??

i spent a little time tonight pricing out my options, and I gotta say their pretty limited. Firm Feel and steer and gear are both well out of my price range..

generally i try to stay away from autozone/kragen type places for actual hard parts, but i may have no choice as its my daily driver and only running car. The only other thing i can think of is to try to find a good used one, but then im risking the same problem happening again if that one is worn out too...

any suggestions or thoughts?