Hi, on the dist. are you talking about play in the advance weights or the main shaft? If the main shaft you can test if it is within acceptable limits by testing with a dwell meter and seeing how much variance you have and maybe save yourself some money. That's a shame about the hei you have, I haven't done that mod in years but never had any problems using stock manifolds. If the problem is not getting enough initial advance you could always change your vacuum from ported to manifold and redo your curve. On the steering box the best and cheapest option back in the day was a 2nd gen trans am box. If I remember right I would look for the ws6 option because it had even less turns stop to stop then the standard setup. I believe it was a direct bolt in just needed to swap pitman arms. I know today there are other options from newer vehicles including jeeps and others I would only caution you to do your research (like your doing) and don't get taken in by some ebayer selling something as a direct bolt in and finding out you need new hoses or adapters or more which is not the end of the world unless your not prepared for it.