Spring - Cloth Beam has alot of play - beam slides back and forth

If you have too much play for the ratchet to fall in between the ratchet wheel and the side of the loom,this can happen on occasion.   The length of the beam should fit between the sides of the Spring. The distance between these sides is a bit flexible. So first thing to do is to check all the parts of the frame of the loom if the connections are tight. Check all bolts and screws are tight.  The breast beam should be placed on the loom, because it connects the loom sides.
If this all is OK and the play in the cloth beam is still too much there are other solutions:

1. Make the cloth beam a bit longer by move out the wooden end of the beam a bit:
Take the beam out of the loom.   Mark the wooden end of the beam with a pencil at they spot where the metal tube is.  Take something like a broomstick that is long enough to reach the wooden end of the beam when you insert it into the open end of the beam. The wooden end of the beam is fastened with 3 screws. If you unscrew these screws. Two of them are cross head pz1 and the other where the beam cord is attached to, is pz2 that comes with the Loom. Now use a hammer the to tap the wooden end a bit out. The distance you can see at the mark you made. When you fix the construction with the screws again, There is a chance that the screws do not make new holes, but go back in their original holes and pull back the wooden end in its original position. In that case you should take out the wooden end, turn it in another position and tap it back in again; the mark you made indicates how far. Now you have fresh spots for the screws.

2. You can fasten the ratchet wheel a bit further to the end. After unscrewing the screws you have to turn the wheel a bit to avoid that the screws go back into the original holes. To fasten the ratchet wheel square, use something for spacer between the taps with the holes and the wood of the beam end.