Mike,

You NEED the o-rings to dampen out Vibrations. When measuring tracking, don't forget that as you increrase throttle, you are also increasing blade pitch. Instead of looking head on at the blade disc as" _ ", you are looking at a " \ " profile. need good contrasting color on one blade tip. Also, something sticks in my mind that you are supposed to bring the low blade up to match the high blade. Could be wrong about this, if so, maybe somebody will jump in.

Yes, most definitely, bent flybar will add vibration. So, will off axis paddles at zero pitch! With zero blade pitch, make sure that both paddles are at zero pitch also. Use a caliper to make sure that the paddles are equidistant from the hub.

good luck
Splat