I guess what you're talking about is No. 18 in the pic below....those are the (top) washers of the riser bushings.

 

My bushings are angled 10 degrees, a much different setup from yours but they do sit within a depression in the tree, not on top of it as yours seem to do.

 

So do I need to remove those bushings?

 

You can't remove the bushings, they're supposed to be there....see drawing I posted above.

But you should double-check the proper fitment!

 

IMHO, yes.

If your new bushings aren't resting inserted into the depression in the tree, the bolts holding them down are not only under tension but are under extra torsional force too as the unseated bushing is no help in that regard unless inserted into the tree.

That said, my bushings were a pretty obvious design replacement for part No's 7, 17 & 18 in EagleRay's drawing. Yours could be different and therefore installed correctly, I dunno. If all you've got between the base of your spacer and a washer or something at the dead of the bolt (#2) is an oversized hole the diameter of part #7, I think something is wrong.

 

I don't think you will crash and burn, I believe they are put there to reduce vibration. UNLESS, when the bars were snug you couldn't wiggle them left to right 1/4" could you?

 

Ah yes,,,, those are "spacers", they would sit on top of the existing bushings.

My sincere appologies for injecting such confusion.

 

Sorry, not the most mechanically gifted =) I can twist a wrench and follow instructions but don't have all the right terminology down (obviously) I can't wiggle them and they are nice and tight and torque'd appropriately. I guess I didn't take enough time during install to see if those would come out.

So I need to take this apart and remove the bottom "spacers" so that the connections are flush on bottom of my 1.5inch spacers?

 

got a buddy over watching the games so I have the spare pair of hands I need, let me go fix this now! I'll take some pics so you all can make sure I did this right.

 

If you did not remove the bushings and washers during install and if you put everything back together tourqing everything to spec there should be no need to take it all apart again. Especially if all is snug and tight and not moving. Those stock riser bushings are made of rubber so there is a slight movement possible but that should be hardly noticeable if at all.

See below what it looks like on my BO with polyurethane bushings: