Frozen ABA crank during rebuild pt II

[area53 at validpath.com (Jeff Toomasson)]

First - thanks to those who responded the first time around.

Taking Anson's advice, I checked the axial play of the rods and isolated the 
binding to piston/rod assembly #2. Sure enough, removal of piston/rod #2 
allowed the crank to spin smoothly. Then I collapsed the rings of piston #2 
and installed it upside-down from the top and was able to lift and lower it 
pretty easily by hand. On top of that, I took both the rod cap and rod base 
(w/ bearings) and "rotated" them around the underside of the #2 crank bearing 
surface with no problem.

But I bolt it all back together and it binds...ggrrrrr....axial play is not 
manually detectable (I don't have feeler gauges)

My theories:

1) something on the side of the rod journal is binding on the crank or it's 
just too wide

2) some portion of the #2 crank surface is warped

Again, rod/main bearings are new and standard and have passed tolerances as 
measured by plastigauge.

Can I have the rod machined on the sides to increase axial clearance? Is this 
not recommended?

Input is always welcome.

Thanks, Jeff