1980 toyota pickup 20r RWD sloppy steering and gearbox play
 

so I'm rebuilding my 1980 pickup RWD, its currently my daily and I don't mind putting the money into it so I'm open to suggestions. recently my steering has been really ˟˟˟˟, any bumps in the road and the truck will start dancing around. after throwing it on the lift I saw the sway bar links were bad so i replaced them and absolutely nothing changed , after more inspection I noticed there's a ton of play in my steering gear box. after asking around, some people say i could adjust it, some say i have to rebuild it, and another said after rebuilding his whole steering system he didnt get any improvements whatsoever... now my question for all you pros would be this: what do you recommend i do ? any suggestions? should i swap out the gear box? is there anything i could upgrade to without going to power steering ? .... im tired of my truck wanting to jump to the next lane over every time there is some sort bump or dip in the road

There is usually a rag joint in the steering shaft that can go bad, tie rod end links/ball joints get sloppy, and as you already noted the steering gear can develop play internally.
Obviously if there is visible play in the steering gear you should address that. And doing so will only result in a net positive, even if it doesn't fix your truck wandering all over the road. How much can you turn the steering wheel before the wheels begin to turn?
I would definitely check tie rod end links and ball joints. (At least I thought there were ball joints on a 2wd front?)
If you jack the front wheels off the ground and try shaking the wheels top to bottom is there any play?
Rebuilding a steering gear is a pain in the butt which is probably why they charge so much for refurbished ones, but it's not impossible.
Hope this helps.