1" should be about right. But if you feel you still have too much try this.

Try to look under the car with weight on wheels as an assitant rocks the steering wheel through it's range of play. Verify they are rocking it not enough to cause the wheels to turn. Look for relative motion between the following:

Pitman arm and center link
Center link and inner tierods
Outer tierods and spindels
Up and down motion of ideler arm
and take a carefull look at the pitman shaft to make sure it is not moving from side to side, it shoud only rotate.
You can also look at the ball joints but these are unlikely to cause steering play.

If you cant see this stuff with the car on the ground, you can jack it up and hold pressure on the wheels and of course while you are under there check for obvious play of any of those components.

Good Luck