During reassembly, I've run into some snags. Unfortunately we have guests coming over, so I can't hang out in the garage all evening and mess with it, but I do have enough time to knock out a quick post and hope somebody has some easy answers. For reference purposes, I'm stealing Vader's graphic from another tilt-wheel-repair thread, below, and using the weird part names identified in the graphic.

For starters, when I reassemble everything, the lock-cylinder won't quite rotate to the lock position, so I can't remove the key. When the wheel lock is in the fully engaged position, the key is still maybe 2mm shy of lining up with the arrow stamped into the collar. I'll point out that I don't actually care about locking the steering wheel. I'd prefer to just remove that whole lock assembly -- the pin, the lock plate, the things in the graphic identified as the sector and rack -- all of it, if possible. However, I don't know what that actuator rod actually does. What is the effect of not having all that garbage moving around when you turn the key? What can I remove? What shouldn't I remove?

The weird part is that "sector" is completely in the little notch in the rack (there are several gear teeth, then a notch at the front), which is the locked position. It doesn't fit together any other way -- so I'm not seeing how it can be lined up wrong. The slot in the lock-cylinder lines up with the tab on that side of the lock assembly, so I can turn the key and watch the lock pin move in and out just fine. But in the locked position, the key is still turned forward just a bit too far to remove if I reassemble it that way. What gives?

Another issue I'm having is that the ignition switch doesn't "bounce back" from turning it all the way forward to the start position. I'm guessing this should be related to that little white thing with two copper contacts which slides in below the key cylinder. I'm hoping that whatever alignment problem is causing the lock issue above is also responsible for this.