Once it was back together I found a couple more issues. The neck was bowed. Like a lot. It took 1 1/4 turns of the truss rod to get it back to where it should be. It's good now, but, still couldn't get the string height below 6/64
With the neck straight I found that the bass side bridge post bottomed out a lot shallower than the treble side, so...
Found out that there was a serious collection of gunk at the bottom of the hole, and the bridge post ferrule was rusted... a lot.
So, I cleaned it with a dental pick, some narrow wire brushes, and some gun cleaning products that I use to deal with rusty bits on guns that I work on. Took out about 1/8 inch of gunk from the bottom of the hole - dirt, rust, lint, just disgusting. To be sure, I did both sides.
Just wanted to point out that the screw wasn;t just cleaned and I took a pic. That is after threading it all the way in, and back out again. It's clean. Lubricated with some gun oil, and it works great now. Perfect 4/64 string height.