OK, finally got a block of time to deal with this. Basically, I backed off all the nipples till pretty loose and put a drop of oil on the spoke at the nipple so it could lube both threads and nipple seat (even though i used a q-tip and put oil on the ferrules when i built the wheels. Also, put a bit of oil at the crossing and the hub and then killed time wiping the excess away. Ran thru the truing process on my stand and voila, no more clicking/ratcheting! Of course, it was like this when i built the wheels ~150 or so miles back. So, I'll get some miles on them and see how it goes, at least i know 100% it is the front wheel.
2manybikes, thanks for the tip, but no issue with hub protruding beyond the drop out.
Anyway, hoping i'm good to go as i have other things i need to move on to.
Thanks for all the help,
Mike