mx4660 doesn't communicate with ESS and mach3

I hope someone can help. the chain of events are like this:
CNC mill cutter 2'x3' - no limit switches. A cable to the x motor got pinched. made the red lights on the mx4660 blink. cable replaced and all axis on the machine were moving again. green lights on the mx4660 came back on.
-While the control box was open i decided to add spindle control from the mx4660 to the vfd. found the info i needed and hooked it up successfully. mach3 now can turn the spindle on and off.
-Tried to ref all home and the z drive motor started chattering badly and did not move - but mach3 was counting inches as if it was moving.
- I tried to make some changes to the pins and ports. now i'm getting no control from mach3. if i try to jog the motors on the computer nothing happens but the dro on mach3 does count as if it's moving.

The jog on/off button in mach3 is enabled.
green lights are still on the mx4660.
ESS smoothstepper has green lights
i've reinstalled the mx4660 .xml file
I've run the warp9 set up .exe for the smoothstepper
I've created a new profile in mach3
i've tried just plugging in one motor at a time.
I checked the DC voltage coming from the mx4660 motor outputs and for motor 1 and 2 I'm getting 42.7vDC across A+ and A- and B+ and B-. For motors 3 and 4 I'm getting 42.7vDC across A+ and A- but for both the B+ and B- jump around between 3 and 6 vDC. Not sure what that means.

other than sacrificing my first born, are there any other options I can try to get this machine up and running?