Play in pitman arm

I took my coach in for inspection and they failed it. I had to replace the drag link, which I did. They also said I had to replace the pitman arm for up and down play not side to side. Now I know for a fact that this play in the pitman arm was there for the 4 previous times I brought it to them and it passed. I tried to explain this to them to no avail. On a side note this is the first year for this repair shop to have a service writer. Everything had to go through him.

Now to my question, I have an EC2000 Spartan chassis. The steering box is mounted on the axle, so it moves up and down with the suspension. The pitman arm is made out of regular steel not cast iron and is clamped on with one bolt. I think there should be a certain amount of play otherwise the pitman arm shaft would suffer over time from the up and down movement. I am also putting in a call to spartan to try and confirm this.

I did find a used one, but it to had the same play, the arm is not available new. Does anyone have any experience with this chassis and do you agree with me. I did manage to close the gap in the arm on a hub bearing press, have not tried it yet, but I don't think this will help.

Ken