Codes P0700 and P0971

I recently purchased this car, it is a four door sedan wit a five speed Asian automatic transmission. No sooner after I removed the instrument cluster to replace a couple of bad cluster illumination bulbs my check engine light came on and power steering stopped working. I checked for DTC codes and retrieved codes P0700 and P0971. When put in drive, there is a delay then engagement. When you step on gas it almost appears that it is in second gear, if put into low it takes off as normally as it should in first gear. Reverse has harsh engagement. My instincts drove me directly to replace the pressure control valve "C", which I did. Unfortunately it did not fix the problem, so I went directly after the TCM- which again still did not correct the concern.
After reading a lot on the internet of possible concerns with the steering and transmission I figured it was time to troubleshoot the steering concern in hopes my luck would change a bit. So I disconnected the steering motor plug from the controller and intentionally reconnected it to see if it was nothing more than a connection issue. I heard the relay pick up and surprisingly the steering began to work again. Unfortunately for only a moment. I did this a few more times with the same results. So I replaced the motor- hoping that a thermal overload was the culprit, guess what? I was wrong again.
The car ran perfectly fine prior to me replacing the exhaust (go figure, I sound like a typical customer) and disconnecting the instrument cluster. Why I keep going back to the cluster? Because not thinking it would be an issue I disconnected it while the car was running. I have checked all the fuses over and over as well as connections. I did find that I pulled a wire out of the traction assist button connector but repaired, concern still exists.
Is there something that I am missing? I disconnected the battery hoping that I would be able to clear all faults or resetting anything that may have been affected by anything that I have done so far. But the check engine light is still on and steering still does not operate.
Any ideas or clear direction that you may have I would greatly appreciate. Thanks