Originally Posted by
wunderkind
^ What do you mean?
Should the steerer be jutting out 2-3mm above the stem or vice versa to preload the headset?
I believe it is flushed with the top of the stem.
Vice-versa. The steerer must end below the uppermost spacer/stem. If the top cap butted up against the steerer, how could the bearings preload? For an extreme example to make the point, what if you had no stem or spacers; the headset would be super loose because there's no way to compress the headset.