Pick Up Mounting

[Austin Starkey]

I am currently servicing my D10 EMCI that I have been playing for a couple years now. I have taken care of the pedals, changer clean and lubrication, and general sprucing up. Here is my issue:
The pickups are not original, but I enjoy the tone of the BL-705 (correct if wrong). But both pickups sit very very high in reference to the strings and I couldn’t for the life of me get them to lower. And the E9 pick up would be crooked after shifting on the mounting plate when put in the case, taken to a gig and taken out, needing to be corrected every time it came out of the case.
1. Is this mounting with the foam spacer (not done by me) typical? If not, advice on mounting correctly.
2. Is the adhesive gluing the pickup to the mounting plate as easy as double sided tape? Thoughts?
See photos.
Thanks in advance!

[Donny Hinson]

A lot of guitars were made like that. It was a simple and cheap way of mounting, and afforded some adjustability. The foam allowed the pickup to be lowered or raised slightly by adjusting the mounting screws. But the foam gets aged and hard, or disentegrates, and due to the ubiquitous thick design of steel pickups and the short-sightedness of builders, it winds up there's not enough adjustment possible. Luckily, in most cases, it's easily fixable.

Sometimes, double-sided tape was used, and sometimes it was contact adhesive. Either served the purpose - for awhile.

[Johnie King]

Maybe use the thick mounting plate that's coming lose from the pickup for a pattern
To make a thin mounting plate from guitar pick guard or Formica material.
Glue the new material too the pickup
Use very thin wood veneer shims in pickup cavity until you get the desired height.
Then screw the pickup in cavity.

Most times springs are used for adjustments but looks like. There's no clearance for springs.