Thread: Record vice question

Hi all, first post, in the form of a question if I may. I hope it is in the most appropriate section.
I am in the early stages of retirement and looking to revisit past skills. For this a general purpose bench is needed and so I have been doing lots of reading up on bench design. This is how I came upon this forum - via the renovation forum where I have been a member for some time.

One of the points I have picked up is to "get the vice/vices first, and build the design keeping the vice size in mind"
To this end I stumbled across an auction for a "work bench with vice + wooden ladder"
I looked at the picture presented and what I saw was - "Record vice with a dilapidated construction attached + useless wooden ladder", confirmed by physical inspection.
Any rate, I won the action and got myself a Record 52 1/2 E, 9" QR vice (plus a pile of fire wood) for $38.

I have stripped the vice down and cleaned it, removed what little grease it had (caked), sanded off some surface rust and it is a beauty, works perfectly.

The question I have though is this - "Is there supposed to be a thrust washer at the handle end, between the the handle boss and the front moveable plate (where the handle/screw goes through the plate)?

The reason I ask is that there seems to be some play in the lateral (fore and aft) movement of the screw. There are 2 washers at the end of the screw, where the "figure 8" end plate and cotter pin is, but this area is loose as if a washer is missing. There is no thrust washer at the handle boss end of the screw as I would have thought there would be. This would take up the slack and provide a better bearing surface than the steel on steel that I see now.

Can anyone advise?
Thanks in advance.