Originally Posted by jeff williams
Try poping the spring out on the bosses from the back, sometimes the spring tension holds it on. It will be filling one of three holes.
Yup, tried that too. The 2nd pic above is actually with the spring removed. The brake arms can be turned freely until they hit the opposite chain stay and I can wiggle them up/down on the post about 1mm or so... but they won't come off.
If it's absolutely definite that the allen screw is the ONLY thing holding them on, I'll clamp the frame and pull on those suckers w/ all I've got... but I'm kinda leery...