Z3 Roadster (E36/7) Stuck partway through "shift pins" job -- any ideas?

Hey all,

So I've got my tranny removed from my Z in the garage and I'm positively stuck for ideas. I'm trying to initially remove the three pins from the top side of the transmission (the smaller diameter ones).

The pins will simply not come out. The caps and springs have been removed successfully. The pins themselves are loose at the bottom of their travel, i.e. when pressed in. But when I expand pliers to pull them out, the will travel approx. 1mm upwards before seizing and not coming any further.

I'm concerned that they have been damaged at the base (the rounded tip) and have perhaps been mushroomed to the extent that the base is now larger diameter than the sleeve. Is this possible? Another idea is that the trans is somehow in the wrong gear/setting and that's restricting the pins. However, they are loose when pushed all the way down into the sleeve.

I have not yet approached the 5th/reverse pins yet, although they are higher priority. Any advice on removing these would be really appreciated. Especially since the car is jacked up and consuming space in my friend's garage! :-/
-Andrew