Yeah, I remember putting those little spacers in my TC3 shocks WAY back when I first assembled it. Somewhere along the way during one of the rebuilds, I did away with them. They were a PITA, to be sure! Thank goodness for droop screws.

I figured that the TC3/4 emulsion shock conversion to bladder used the up travel limiters to prevent from squeezing on the bladder too much. The TC5 shocks don't use external travel limiters, but the VCS2 update to the older shocks makes them basically the same as TC5 shocks. I don't have a TC5 shock body to measure, but I wonder if they're the same size overall as far as internal volume and stroke? That would seem to counterindicate using the external travel limiters on the TC3.