I drove the car to and from Hershey a few weeks ago, no problems. But I couldn't leave well enough alone, it was bothering me that I should have to have the adjustable thrust plunger, so I pursued it further. See the videos below:
The first one demonstrates a noise while cranking the engine manually with the valve cover off. The noise is significantly louder in the video than in person. The phone seemed to amplify it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ty8R8IAzFus
The second video shows the backlash up front of a section of the gear just past TDC:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmqjggeQwsU
The third video shows no significant backlash at another point in the gears rotation:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpRcTs2Pc0k