I just put spindles in one earlier in the week and 1/32" is normal. This was a 54" fabricated deck. Don't know if the stamped deck is the same or not. 

Last series of the heavy Simplicity lineage.

I couldnt use the 60 on the roadside at all. The 48 does good there and great out in the orchards mowing weeds between the trees.

Sunstar series, along with the Sovereign series were very good mowers from the early 90's into the early 2000's. The 52, or 54" full roller decks were the best out there. As mentioned, the 60" cut just as well on the flat, but any crowns or terracing yielded problems.

Last Sovereign I had was finally parted out for another machine at 4300hours on it's meter. Two engine rebuilds, (by me), a couple of hydrostat transmission refreshens, and several spindles/arbors, but really just trouble free. Predecessors to them were 916H, and 918H Allis-Chalmers, and Agco-Allis branded machines. 

Purchased an new John Deere 214 in 1980 from a good friends family starting a small Deere L&G dealership at the time and it too served just as well. It too ran to almost 4100 hours with much the same maintenance and upkeep as the Allis/Simplicity products.

My experience with a Sunstar has been that it is an extremely well built mower, can take the abuse of a large acreage (above 1 acre) weak points are the front axle arrangement if not lubricated and maintained, deck mow height seems to trim grass too low to ground and not much vertical height adjustment, fuel gauges for most of these units don't work after 20 - 30 years and replacement is time consuming.  Rear tire size could have been improved and was solved with the 1920 tractors. 

Have had phenomenal reliability from the Kohler CH 20 that was equipped in the late Sunstars this is an overhead valve design.  

HTH's ~ Orangeman