Weird. I took apart the back of the engine because the 3 shims I had in there, were causing the crank to bind.
So after trying other 3-shim combinations I was getting DOUBLE the movement I should have been getting.
So after several trials I ended up with FOUR shims totalling WAY more thickness than I had originall when things were binding. And still I'm at .008 movement. The only shim I have left is .012 thick. If I put that on them I'm sure be be binding again.
So, I don't know. Maybe the 8 or 9 times I've torqued down the gland nut has taken out some kind of "slack" in the case/bearing setup. If that's the case then it's a good thing I did all this, since it would have gone way out of spec sometime in the future after the engine gets used.
I think I'm going to have to leave the .008 movement even though .006 is supposed to be the max allowed, unless I can find some other shim stock somewhere and try this all again.