Hi,
I had similar problems porting some externals to Mac Intel. In my case the solution didn't regard OS related paths/commands: I used the current test version of Pd (0.40-7) and it worked... M. Puckette told me (http://lists.puredata.info/pipermail/pd-dev/2006-09/007455.html) it's the only version actually working with Mac Intels.
Of course you have to inform Pd about the path of your externals, or just put them in extra.
Stefano