Cleaned out the lock cylinder, dry lubed it and popped it back in, works like a charm.
Not too concerned about no steering wheel lock!
Valve adjustment yesterday, 2 tight exhaust, 1 exhaust too loose, now all in spec.
The surprise was despite all the "2 14 mm bent wrenches" needed in the on line tutorials, that I bought and bent a few weekends ago, my engine has 15mm lock nuts.
Nothing that a parts run and a torch session couldn't fix.

__________________
95 E300D gave away
77 300D, 227k, station car
83 300CD 370k, body gone away to the rust gods, engine is in a Yota pickup, going strong
89 190E 2.6- 335k, no more
79 VW FI Bus- 154k summer driver
59 VW Beetle ragtop- 175k
12 VW Jetta- 250k
74 MG Midget-78k