I got the chuck back today from a retired toolmaker who lightly chased the thread in the chuck, and when fitted it went on further, but still jammed where the broken out piece of thread is
. I tried a small file cleaning up around that local area, which made only a smidgeon of improvement in engagement, so then used Rex's idea of lapping paste - worked like a charm!
I had to rotate it a few times around the thread before it rotated freely with the lapping paste, then cleaned it all out, applied a bit of vaseline and viola, seated home with just hand screwing
...
thanks for all your thoughts, I'm back functional again....