couple other things:

I'm thinking that the squeeking is because they ways were just done?  I can get a little noise WAY at the top of z even going slow..again more on the downstroke.

I didn't mention that the belt covers are now off and there's a noticible ticking az z moves. again can't pinpoint exactly.

Anyhow...I just grabbed that belt and "manually" turned the z a bunch of times....and although my motors are now "untuned" z appears to be working MUCH better.  This mill has NO manual controls. I imagine moving the motor by hand wouldn't hurt it as some cnc mills do have manualy controls. 

Well, I fell a bit better now (at least enough to sleep), but not knowing why it was doing that is a little scarry.

Remember that when you call for a Z- the bed should go up in both jogging and gcode. With a Z+ call the bed should go down. Otherwise when you start to run code to make chips you will get a surprise. (;-) TP