HOLY CRAP!! it's like a whole new truck.
either the 2nd gen steering pump is that different, or the pump i had has been failing since before i bought this truck. everything about the steering is just clean now. well, and i greased everything up there
then the drive shaft, fawk, even the clutch is smoother. i knew the carrier bearing rubber was blown out, but would have never expected it to create excessive clutch chatter. i could drive around it, but now i don't have to. again, i've known it was fubar for about a year, but it's obviously been bad since before i got the truck.