I doonnnooo, what you describe "could be" serious, serious enough that I'd get some local help if necessary.

ONE THING you must do when checking for slop is to unload the ball joints. You do this by jacking up the car --typically with jack stands---and supporting the LOWER CONTROL ARMS so that there is no weight on the ball joints.

Now you can use a small bar and pry and push on things and see what moves.

Do you run headers? I had a 340 in my old '70 for a while (sixpack body) and the headers occasionally "bit" the drag link. Not good

Consider also that there could be something like a broken chip or bearing ball floating around in the manual? box, or even something in the steering column