Romper, domper, stomper, doo.
I had a fact finding mission. I know the first pic is blurry, but I moved the rubber ring that was around the bearing to show it was in place, along with the snap ring. This was done with the steering column pulled as far out as possible(an inch too far to be right).
What I have found out is that the play is in the coupler. In the second picture, you can see a hole in the steering shaft. What it that? There is a metal thing there on the shaft that looks like it should fit onto the coupler, but I don't see that solving my problem. This isn't a big deal, as I never looked into until now, but it's an interesting problem.
Mike