I second what EBottema said. I, too, talked to a Bosch tech the other day and he brought up the fact that some run with no plate. Same comment, if you're not real careful, eventually the rack stop will fail and ruin the pump. He said when you put your foot into it and run the rack to the end, it smacks that stop kinda hard. Not a good thing. Go plateless at your own risk.
-Jay