It takes about zero effort to hook up the power steering lines. Looping the lines just results in fluid being displaced each time you turn the wheel making steering more difficult than it needs to be.

Running most power steering gears / racks without pressurized fluid results in lots of free play in the steering. Most PS units use a rotary valve coupled to a torsion bar. One end of the bar is attached to the steering wheel and the other to the worm / pinion gear. As you turn the wheel, the torsion bar winds up opening fluid passages in the rotary valve. The worm / pinion catches up with the steering wheel closing the valve.

When there isn't any pressurized fluid, the torsion bar rotates until the steering side and worm / pinion parts hit a safety stop. ( the safety stop is a tongue and groove / slot and tab arrangement )

I have converted PS racks to manual by putting metal strips in the groove and adding a ring around the whole thing to keep them from falling out. Don't try to weld the two together as yo will never get everything lines up exactly and the metal is hardened making reliable welding difficult.

As for the steering gears that don't use a torsion bar, that would be most any non rack MB and older Chrysler. These use a reaction ring and some other valving that I haven't spent too much time investigating. In these arrangements, the steering wheel is attached directly to the worm gear making non powered operation possible by just draining fluid.

The stock alternator will be just fine, you have lots of other more important stuff to fabricate. Keep control of the project otherwise it will end up on Craiglist as " lost interest "