Crossmember and lower A Arms should be parallel to the floor at ride height. Some guys used to put the dampners on to take some of the twitchiness out with power steering and with the manual racks it was done to absorb bumps when cornering so as not to pound on yer arms to much....common deal when a lot of caster was dialed in to aid in high speed stability.... Lots of silly things done to rack and pinion steering in the 80's cuz some thought the rack was just "too quick" for a Hot Rod... and yes, sometimes the dampners were added to treat the symptom rather then find a cure cure for a steering geometry error....

PS--those old stamped steel arms and sloppy rubber bushings were often overlooked when searching for a suspension problem. Might want to give some thought to updating the arms.....