Welp, I spent a good hour and a half getting the shims off of the front rotors...the stupid pins were stuck really solid. The only possible issue I noticed while the pads were out was that one of the pistons, if I moved it around a lot, would leak a little bit of fluid out of the seals. However, In normal use, if the reservoir doesn't go down at all, I don't think it'll matter. ANYWAYS, when I got all 4 shims out (they were the metal ones) and pressed the pedal a few times to compress the pistons, whala! The brakes are extremely solid, with none of the long pedal travel to get pressure that I needed before. I can now easily lock up my brakes if I really want to(I only did once, just to test), and now I am a happy man. All that effort, all that typing by me and a plethora of others, and it all came down to just four stupid little shims. hah. The only problem I now have is that I think all my banging on the caliper pins messed up turned my little magnet that drives my bicycle computer just enough to not register, so I've got to take it apart again to fix that....but either way, I'm really excited to have good brakes finally! thanks again all you guys here who really helped me so much!
Nate Gundy
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'86 240DL sedan, 260K miles, M46, K cam, 25/21mm sways, 260 front and wagon rear springs; http://valvespringcompressor.weblogs.us/