I understand better now. While I am leaning towards a pump issue for the noise, binding in the steering could also cause it. You mentioned the box was checked and tight but that is what could actually be causing It and also might be responsible for your drift because it is happening both to the right and left. what I have seen happen in the past is a box gets tight by internal problems or most times someone over adjusting the jam nut adjuster to tight trying to remove slop from the steering causing a vague feeling when the wheel is straight ahead and it is hard to keep it on center and feels like it wants to follow every road irregularity also. being to tight is hard to feel because our systems are so over assisted. These symptoms could also be caused by alignment problems loose front end parts and tires but it sounds like you addressed all those issues and the 2 problems remain. But if the drift happened after the new tires rotating front to back as suggested is the easiest way to diagnose if the tires are responsible. If your box is to tight adjust it to the factory specs outlined in the manual it needs to have some play. If none of these things are responsible for the vague drifting steering 2 other things come to mind the first is the front and rear curb heights if your front end is to high verses the rear it would give you that symptom because it throws of your caster angle. second did you install after market disc brakes ? some times the tie rod mounting location on the knuckle is to high or low, the tie rods should be on a fairly straight plain right to left. If there is to extreme of an angle either way it will give you drift as well as bump steer. Lastly unfortunately it can be really hard to get a proper full alignment these days because it's so much easier with most modern cars. I have a friend locally That ended up having to have his redone 4 times because of incompetence. I would always suggest anyone ask for a before and after alignment printout to compare.