Thrust Bearing damage - Why?

When your TC is fully seated in the transmission, what is the distance from the ring gear to the front of the case, should be 1 1/4"? When I had my first issue with the snout size I was sent another converter and the stator was bottoming out on the support shaft and I could only get 1 1/8" which had caused some wear on the thrust bearing. I was able to catch it in time and figure out the issue and they redid my TC and all is good now.