Hi,
First post.
You can join the tubes but you are still going to be pumping fluid so the steering will still be hard.
You would need to de-power the rack by removing the piston on the rack which requires a full strip down but this would leave you with a properly de-powered quick rack.
Here's how its done on the MX5 rack, it would be the same on most power steering racks.
Cheers
Stot