Thank you both for offering your ideas...
I figured out my problem though. After bouncing the car up and down while the hood was open, I could see excessive play with the piston shaft in the bushing at the strut tower. I backed the lock nut off of the shaft and pulled out the top bushing and to my amasement, the lower bushing that sits inside of the spring collar between the collar and the top of the dust cover was missing. Also missing was the 1" tube spacer.
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I remember assembling all of the bushings and tube spacers and inserting them in the spring collar but apparently one of them fell out prior to getting the collar over the shaft and on top of the spring.... so basically every time I hit a bump the strut would come up and send the steel boot/dust cover slamming into the spring collar and the shaft would rattle back and forth making all of that noise I heard.
I can't believe that's all it was and even more I can't believe I didn't notice the bushing and spacer fall out when I was assembling everything.
Anyhow she handles much better now and there's no more cringing at bumps.:thumbup: .... now on to the rest of the suspension
