[Walt Fricke]

They all have what seems like a lot of play, and it isn't important. If you could pull the cap off the ball, I'd maybe worry, but even then it wouldn't affect running (and the early factory race motors used caps, of varying thickness, on a sort of post - no part captured on a ball). When you adjust the valves with a feeler gauge, you have removed this play. If you use an angle method, when you zero things to start you have removed the play.