I have mach 3 set up as per the instructions.

I have removed each lead screw from the coupling, and turned them all through their complete length multiple times. there are no spots where anything is binding.

The motors are getting a little warm,i can keep my hand on them, but i wouldn't say its comfortable if you know what i mean. they are a little hot.

Hmmm, sounds about right then for motor current. I will give this matter some more thought. 

The driver board is not the best but it is not bad either so should work OK. There is an issue with some opto isolators requiring the full 5 volt TTL levels and PC parallel ports only outputting the 3.3 volt TTL logic signal. If you can, it may be worth checking your LPT port to see if the direction signal pins swing approx 0 to 5 volts when jogging an axis or if they only make 3.3 volts.

Tweakie.

how would i go about that? just with a multimeter from the pin to ground?

Yes.

Pins 18 to 25 are ground (negative lead of multimeter) connect the positive lead to a step pin and then jog the axis one way it should read approx. 5 Volts and the other way it should read approx. 0 Volts.

Tweakie.

Id check the pulse width in Motor tuning. Bump it up to 5 and try it