There’s gonna be some jigglyness at this point. How is the bushing on the firewall that the rod is embedded in?
The slotted piece on the valve cover invariably wears out a little. There’s supposed to be a cylinder shaped poly roller that glides within the slot, but oftentimes the poly wears out and the slot enlarges. No off the shelf fix for that.
Don’t worry bout the rod having play in the stop rod hole, pretty normal.

There’s a linkage adjustment tutorial somewhere round here...