figured out my problem Howard.....the pic is upside down.....the top cushion is the bottom one not the top like i'm showing in the pic. the one with the shoulder is the top cushion. steele shows the lip on the top cushion on there website.
and being that the cushion i was calling the top was measured at 3/8 and stock is 5/16....compressed that makes sense now.
the top says 1/2" and i got 5/8, but that could have been buldged actually.