Pinging

IMO, that distributor has a crap load of advance in it. Sounds like it has 36ish degrees which is more than any mopar dist I've ever seen. At what RPM did it stop advancing?

Here's what I'd do. Take the distributor apart, if necessary, and limit advance to about 16-18* if it was happy at 34* total. If it's a Mallory style advance, you have it easier. Time the car so you have about 15-18 initial. When welding the advance plate, do the inside portion. Run a light spring kit and you should be close. You'll get most of that soggy feel back when you retarded your timing.

Try hooking the vac advance to direct manifold vacuum and see how it idles. Should clean it up a bit. There are issues with that dumping all the advance to the soggy zone when you step on it.

Bummer about the trans issue. Maybe it's a simple fix. Torqueflites are easy to work on. Crawl under the car and see it the shift lever on the trans still has detent positions when you move it from to back. Quit deal when moving the lever... forward is go, towards 1st/low, back is to park.

Good luck with it.