think you may be on to something, i flipped the bike over tonight and as i screwed on the top screw on race, i noticed that as i tightened it down, it pulled the steer tube forward, visually you could see that the headset wasn't aligned properly, there was a bigger gap between the crown race and screw race in the back, than in the front. and when i turned it to the right, it tightened it down more, which caused the binding.

so my thought is, it can only be in a few spots, the fork crown, the bottom pressed race or the fork.

i put in a spare fork that sorta of fit, i couldn't replicate the problem with them, but i can't rule out that they were properly seated..

visually the lower races look fine, there are not any gaps or obvious bumps that would cause them to be causing this. my next step is to pop out the lower pressed cup and inspect the inside of the tube. maybe a reseating of it can do the trick?