Done!
Thanks guys; it was a missing spring for the LH side.
Couple bucks for a new spring and that took care of it. The only trickery was (a) pulling the steering wheel (I made my own puller) and (b) pulling the lock plate off the top of the column.
I also cleaned up the steering wheel and repainted the column while I was at it (oh - and also found a broken wire in the turn signal stalk, which is probably why the cruise doesn't work).
Thanks again -
K