Originally Posted by
oldskoolwrench
I don't see a problem with grinding the tab off, especially if your adjustable cup has a slight recess where the spacer in question fits in the recess just right. The tabs do have a way of buggering up the threads no matter how careful one is.
If you have a threaded, slotted HS spacer (looks like a BB lockring) you can put that on top of your 'keyless' spacer and effectively lock down the adjustable cup. Then, use 1" threadless spacers to tune the stack height, then install the top Locknut and firm that up.
Alan
Alan, doesn't this defeat the engineered/thought-out purpose of the tabbed washer? It seems to me that if the washer is loose that the headset won't work correctly, especially in the long run. As an engineering school person, it seems that you should either replace the tabbed washer if it's jamming in the threads, or use a new headset that has some other design that uses that "floating" washer method on purpose. That washer shouldn't move IMO...