Opinions on a plan of attack

Ive fixed it twice before, yet it keeps getting stress cracks in different places and firm feel wants $329 to rebuild plus $225 to change the ratio to 16:1....and Im still stuck with manual steering, have to cough up money for a new idler/pitman/inner and outer tierods/tierod sleeves...and still using a 50-year old system (not saying its bad, my Cuda drives great)

My trouble is, Both of my dailys are neons (pictured below), one is very tight (konis, eibachs, big factory sways, urethane bushings, fast ratio steering, and around 170hp) and theres a HUGE difference in the way they drive...and then theres THIS...that is by far the worst thing Ive driven (my old 390/C6 F250 on trailer tires handled better by miles) and the 20-whatever:1 steering is a pain almost to the point I dont want to drive it. The neon is just as quick but so much more stable to drive.