power steering fluid & overboost bypass

I've actually got a number of questions about my 1990 300D:

1) Should power steering fluid turn "dark"?? I recently drained the old, replaced the filter and replaced fluid with Valvoline synthetic (nice, clear fluid). Now when I look at the fluid it has turned brown enough that I can no longer see the filter...

2) I have a slight leak on the low-pressure side of the power steering and wonder what type of hose I can use to replace this with??

3) I realized that my ALDA hose has been bypassed at the vacuum changeover switch because one of the nipples is broken on the switch. There appears to be 3 outlets on this switch, one on the bottom and two on the top in an L-shape with the top outlet covered by some type of cap--when I replace, how do I know which hose goes where and what damage can this cause until I can fix--I have read the posts about this and am unclear as some people say the engine could melt and others say bypassing is no problem?? Also, if you ask about performance, I have no comparison so don't know if the car is performing turbo-boost-wise as it should.

4) The steel "clips" that hold the vacuum hoses on these and other switches--are these the banjo fittings I keep reading about and regardless of that, how do you get them disconnected and reconnected??

<** adding after BillyBob's comments: that is helpful and based on what was said, the clamps I'm talking about are definitely NOT banjo fittings!! And they are not the clips that are what I call radiator "screw-tight" clamps but instead are clamps that look like they probably take a special tool to clamp on and I can't figure out how to get them off without ruining them--which may be the intent ;-) can the radiator clips be used for this application?? **>

Sorry for all the questions but had some time this weekend to check things out after reading a lot of stuff on this forum.

Thanks for all your help--I REALLY appreciate it from a novice-but-learning-lots-from-this-forum mechanic!! Mike