Some ignition questions

Now for my questions....sorry for the long story above...just wanted to give you guys a picture of where things are at......is it possible my test with the HEI went sideways because of the higher resistance coil I used.....it was a Petronix oil filled 1.5 ohm....same that has been on this car for years now.....also is this coil a good choice to run with the orange box and a 1.2 ohm ballist resistor? Should I have used a lower resistance coil like a .32 ohm coil with the GM HEI ?
Second question would be while checking my distributor I found there is some play in the shaft which I'm sure could cause issues with the reluctor.....is any play here normal? And is it easily fixed? Car runs good pulls hard to 5500 rpm no problem when it runs.....idles a little rougher at times.....could the rougher idle be a symptom of the play in the shaft?
Thanks for any help and opinions.....will probably be sticking with the Ol' Mopar electronic ignition for now....just in case anyone feels compelled to ask....I know this is a hot topic in the Mopar circles!
Also just a weird note here the Mopar 5pin harness I bought from Jegs had the two pin connector for the distributor pickup on it backwards....found phasing was wrong....checked it against the old harness I removed and sure enough it was wrong.....has anyone else experienced this with replacement harnesses? Car fired right up once I rewired the plug and phasing was right.....then the intermittent gremlin came back!