Under dash help..

I've only stripped about a dozen A Bodies over the years but I have never seen anything in the "red circled area". Not sure if anything ever did go there but there's nothing in my '72 Duster.

The play in the column plate to firewall is there so you can line up the steering shaft to the steering box. Mount the column under the dash, connect the coupler to the steering box and set the column at the best straight shot from box to steering wheel. Once it's lined up tighten the three bolts on the plate (don't forget the gasket).

That plastic wire cover will still slip in place once the column is in. If it's troublesome it's easy enough to drop the plate shown in post #3 and mount it. And remember those insulators are designed to help collapse the column in an accident so don't do anything to interfere with that.