Front caliper replacement 1986 2wd van

I'm trying to replace my drivers front brake caliper, I've gotten it bolted up, now when I go to put the pads in the caliper is shifted inward and there's not enough room to put the outer pad in. The piston is fully compressed and the brake line is not hooked up and I've removed the brake line nipple but I can't seem to shift the caliper outward enough to get the pad in I've tried a 600# squeeze clamp and an good sized F clamp with no love. Please suggest or tell me what I'm doing wrong...super fru:pissed:strated

Are you saying you bolted the caliper on before putting the pads on?

Yes, The caliper I got was also for an 87, but as i read from another thread in this forum 85 through 89 calipers will fit. Maybe theres something I'm missing. I very mechanically inclined so this one has stumped me for sure. I ended up putting the old caliper back on for now and I'm moving on to doing the master cylinder. My original issue came after trying to compress the piston on the original frozen caliper it was obviously frozen for a while as the rotor was rusted and you could see that side of the brakes had not engaged in some time. I'm pretty sure this blew out a seal in the MC. The brakes worked ok before but after putting everything back together and when I hit the brakes, the van barely stopped. I've deduced it down the MC as Ive tested the booster and it doesn't seem to have any leaks. Waiting on a new MC then will go at things again. This is not a daily driver, we bought the van to make an art car for burningman so it needs to stop at least as good as it did before I went in to check and replace brake parts that were needed.

Part number wise, there is a difference for 86 only, otherwise maybe there is something in the bottom of the slide pin bore keeping it from sliding all the way over? The tin caps aren't too hard to remove so maybe try putting it on without the cap to see if it's limiting it.
Also, unless I'm misunderstanding something, the pads should be installed to the caliper bracket first and then the caliper installed over them.

I only bolted the new caliper and bracket in, either way there wasn't enough room to get the outside pad on and pivot the caliper in place. Over abundance of clearance inside. I might try removing the cap on the pivoting pin, not going to be able to return it now:wnk:
Not sure why the pic is sideways but it is:(: