Sorry to hear about the distance. There is a Zero Dealer less than 10 miles from me.
Have never dealt with them other than visiting the store a couple times.
Whenever anything is needed, I take my Zeros to Hollywood Electrics about 300 miles away.
No reason to believe that the local dealer is not qualified, but, when I purchased my FIRST Zero, there
were no dealers in town. Have had excellent experience with Hollywood, so no reason to switch.
That being said, I went out and checked my SR. The play seems to be about half
of what yours is. There is a good chance that it may have been loose causing the top of the
aluminum stand to have spread, making it looser. If you remove it, you should be able to tell.
Once removed, if it appears to be deformed, you can work on getting it back to where it needs
to be.
BEST way would be to get a bolt an inch or so longer than needed to fit through.
Place a Large flat washer on each end of the bolt then tighten the nut down to
gently squeeze it back to the proper width. If you have the ability to apply some heat, that would help.
A more brute force way would be to just pound it back into shape. This is quick and dirty, but has
the possible downside of breaking it or making it too tight.
Probably should have suggested this in the first place.
Hope this helps