I believe those spacers are there to keep the alignment between the side cogs and inner cogs. Without them it would seem the inners could fall and come out of alignment with the side gears when they pop open when rounding a corner. I think I would want them in there. Maybe that's why the guy sold it because he left those out and it wasn't working the way it should have.
![I Dunno... :dunno:](https://board.marlincrawler.com/Smileys/marlin/dunno.gif)