Well, I got my trusty girlfriend to help by pushing the pedal down. It looked like everything was okay, except for the point on the injector pump not contacting the stop. I didn't see any excessive play; I think that it just got out of spec by a little bit.

So, I adusted the linkage at the rod going down to the injector pump...all I can say is

OH...MY...GOD!!!

It's like a whole new car. Before, I had to floor it to get out of its own way; now I can go about that fast at half throttle, and full throttle is something else entirely.

Man, I thought the OM617's were supposed to be slow!! I'm still in shock...I had thought that the car was supposed to drive like this...I guess I was wrong.

Thank you all!!