Now onto my next set of problems to tackle:
1. - moire on prints. i guess the voltages to the extruder motor is either too high or too low..  any suggestions on which way to go ?  at the moment the moire is minimal and doesn't bother me THAT much (but it does bother me sometimes )
2. - warped aluminum build plate (so far solved this by using glass and only clamping on 1 side of the plate as clamping both sides would flex the glass--yes the plate is warped as much as 1mm which drove me nuts initially when trying to level it).

thanks everyone for all their help and suggestions.  i hope this post may help the next person as well.

1. I would try turning it down just a little and see how things go - remember, tiny adjustments can have a big impact, so dont get too happy with the driver...

2. get the clips off the glass. if you still have the kapton tape on the aluminum, try using hairspray to stick the glass to the existing bed.
spray the bottom of the glass with the hairspray, set the glass on the bed and heat to about 60C for a couple of minutes. then turn heater off and let it cool completely. repeat one or two more times if needed - the glass should be stuck in place with no need of clips to hold it.
This method works very well for me. I have not needed to re-do in several months it is stuck down so well.

the skinny:
the problem is now resolved by upping the voltage on the pots

the long:
- I removed the belt and let the motor spin freely by itself and it also made the really loud noises which leads me to believe that the problem is isolated to the motor and not the belts/carriages
- I adjusted the pots to up the voltage to the motor as lowering it before didn't help but made the problem worse IIRC.
- The voltage ends up being somewhere in the 0.85V.  I think this is safe voltage as I read a lot of people running it at 1V.  However, this is twice the limit of what solidoodle recommends.  But as AZERATE mentioned, voltages are just a guiding point.

Now onto my next set of problems to tackle:
- moire on prints. i guess the voltages to the extruder motor is either too high or too low..  any suggestions on which way to go ?  at the moment the moire is minimal and doesn't bother me THAT much (but it does bother me sometimes )
- warped aluminum build plate (so far solved this by using glass and only clamping on 1 side of the plate as clamping both sides would flex the glass--yes the plate is warped as much as 1mm which drove me nuts initially when trying to level it).

thanks everyone for all their help and suggestions.  i hope this post may help the next person as well.

I will try some things later in the day once I find the time.  Will report back later.

Forgot to mention, I have the Rev E board

If you move the axis by hand when power is not applied does it move as easy as the other?

Anyway, I forgot to mention that the X motor does have a fan with this mount I printed:

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:128526

This is one of the first things I've done as I noticed it was very hot to the touch after a print.

A few further questions:
- how do I check the X VREF?  Is it the same method as I did with probing one of the pins on the stepper chip?
- how can I tell/test for x-belt is stretching?  I was considering on unhooking the belt and running the motor to rule out any fault with the motor in case there are internal issues with it.  I will do this soon when i get around to tinkering it.
- what do you recommend on the rods to get on amazon?  in particular, the rod length as I do not have tools to cut it to length.

i am trying to keep costs at the minimal because i already spent some money buying this second hand and pouring more money into it would put me into buyers remorse .  not to mention, i've been planning for the e3d upgrade for some months now.

As a side note, order the new rods ASAP. If needed, I can ship you new Lawsy carriages...the stock SD carriages are garbage printed with 40% infill, so you aren't losing out...only gaining! Just order the rods and some LM8UU linear bearings. If you can't print the new carriages, let us know as we have a great community here.

The things I've tried so far:

• lubing the rods
  tightened the screws
  tightened the belt (but not entirely as im afraid it might snap, will work more on this area)
  adjusted voltage to the x-axis

Everything is currently stock, I haven't switch to lawsy's carriages yet as I do not want to spend more money on new rods.  I know I can reuse the old ones but that requires destroying the current carriages.

In regards to the voltages, the x-axis originally had 0.65V and so I adjusted it down to .443 as closely as I can as per solidoodle wiki.  The other interesting thing is that the pots were reversed on mine.  Clockwise on this one is lowering the voltages while counter clockwise is higher voltage.  I know I did not reverse the polarity when probing because my Fluke would have showed negative voltage.  Is this normal?  What voltage should I have it set to?

Does anyone have other suggestions?

Thanks