Thank you very much for your response- i haven't quite figured it out yet.
There was a very nasty bit on my model that was just completely tangled and confused and i was pretty sure that was the mess. All other geometry seemed to flow quite smoothly. So after seeing if i could salvage the bit by going in there and rearranging, (and failing) i just deleted it and am remodeling it. Im gonna see ifi can upload a picture of what i have now.
However, i tried once more to covert it with the mess simply gone, and nothing. I have looked through my model several times, but i will try what you said. I appreciate it very much.