You will find that once everything is back together, most of the slop will be gone. I say most because back when these cars were new, the goal of automakers was different back then as compared to today. It used to be desireable to have super easy, NO effort steering. Todays cars have smaller steering wheels, tighter ratios and a higher steering effort. You can get that feeling with an older car, it just takes a slightly different approach.
I didn't see you mention if this is a power steering car. If not, the manual steering cars have a ratio that is very slow. The ratio is approx 20 to 1. These require about 5 1/2 turns from full left to full right. You can buy NEW 16This one change will to 1 steering boxes that close that gap to 3 1/2 turns lock to lock. In a light car, this makes a huge improvement and if you are of average strength, it should not pose a problem steering at low speeds.
Another thing that makes new car steering feel better is the front end alignment settings they are built with. Have you ever noticed how after making a U turn, the newer car steering wheel automatically wants to return to center? This is partly due to CASTER. THis is important and to get more CASTER from an old Mopar, consider replacing the UPPER control arm bushings with the following brand: Moog K-7103. Do a google search on them on how they are to be installed as many shop/machinist guys are just not keen on it. This ONE change will be a great step towards a better feeling, responding and handling car.
Good luck and PLEASE make sure to respond with updates on your progress. What we do can often help others here.
