It seems like my main problem is with the loaders. If I take a kernel which I've had success with booting and move it to a different loader, it fails to boot. If I try to take the 2.4.22 kernel from its floppy and load it with LOADLIN or SYSLINUX it won't boot. If I take my custom 2.4.22 kernel and stick it on the floppy that had 2.4.22 it won't boot.
Until I can find a reliable way of loading the kernel I'll never know if the kernel itself is bad.