Got It! NOT SURE WHY....
OK after a few days and 2 capacitive proxs i finally got it. I rolled the dice and installed its own 24v power supply and an optocoupler to signal back to the plc and it worked, BUT i'm not sure why?? I went this route by reminding myself this switch worked when i had it on the test bench but when in the machine it didnt. 24volts is 24volts right? I metered the original power supply and it was fine, even bumped it up .5volts but didnt work.
an odd thing i noticed prior to installing the 2nd PS was that i had ~5vdc from the 0vdc terminal to the frame of he machine. If i pulled the positive lead off the PS the votage went away. I assume the stray voltage was causing the problem. i never did find where that voltage was coming from but did troubleshoot it down to the input side of the micrologix plc.
anyway, thank ou all for you tips!