Welp, I fixed the noise. I greased up all the moving bushings and joints in the front suspension, and I re-impacted my stock studs back on tighter, and all the noises are gone. Didn't really pinpoint it down to anything, but hey, I fixed it.
As for the studs, I removed my extended ones by putting on a wheel nut I bought from NAPA, and using a deadblow hammer to maximize my impact onto the nut, and not into my hands or anything else. It worked like a charm. 3 swings and each stud was out.
I used my impact gun with the same wheel nut to impact the stock studs back into place. Guess I didn't do it hard enough! Make sure that you can see no gap in the backside where the stud seats...and then some!