Thanks docc, I'm trying to move to spherical bearings.
After re-reading the OP I realized he answered my question in his first post. He couldn't find bearings with the correct ID, hence the stepped spacers.
Given the custom turned spacers are the big hurdle to following this guide... do they need to be custom? It looks like you made them to ride inside the heim joint but I can't figure out why.
It seems like a heim joint with an ID that matches the bolt, plus a couple plain spacers with that same ID would locate the joint just as well. Would like to know if I'm missing something before I go that way.