OK, I found it - orgmode 9.1 seems to be incompatible with emacs 24.3. 
Switched to 25, that fixed it.

- thomas

On 28.10.2017 17:20, thomas wrote:
> bisecting the repo I found
>
> 6d6a30d4cd682732ba40328bbeb96122a50f96ff is the first bad commit
> commit 6d6a30d4cd682732ba40328bbeb96122a50f96ff
> Author: Nicolas Goaziou <mail@nicolasgoaziou.fr>
> Date:   Tue Jun 27 23:06:02 2017 +0200
>
>     org-table: Implement shrunk columns
>
>     * lisp/org-table.el (org-table-shrunk-column-indicator): New variable.
>     (org-table-with-shrunk-columns): New macro.
>     (org-table--shrunk-field):
>     (org-table--list-shrunk-columns):
>     (org-table--shrink-field):
>     (org-table--read-column-selection):
>     (org-table--expand-all-columns):
>     (org-table-toggle-column-width): New functions.
>
>     (org-table-align):
>     (org-table-get-field):
>     (org-table-insert-column):
>     (org-table-delete-column):
>     (org-table-move-column):
>     (org-table-move-row):
>     (org-table-insert-row):
>     (org-table-insert-hline):
>     (org-table-kill-row):
>     (org-table-sort-lines): Use new functions.
>
>     (org-table-overlay-coordinates):
>     (org-table-toggle-coordinate-overlays): Tiny refactoring.
>
>     * testing/lisp/test-org-table.el (test-org-table/toggle-column-width):
>     (test-org-table/shrunk-columns): New tests.
>
> :040000 040000 a75dcf8311b90361b2d99e315d8cbae4c9836c68 
> 2202d9db07c6bb02c03f6ba6b992542b82f0dafe M    lisp
> :040000 040000 cd9214392a149e0b2bd695221c3d33e48ab21678 
> 93fd5cba6bb6814617f5d73d4f40f1bb12bc8295 M    testing
>
>
>
> - thomas
>
>
> On 28.10.2017 16:25, thomas wrote:
>> hm, I recompiled org mode and found this warning:
>>
>> Compiling /home/thomas/dev/elisp/orgmode/org-mode/lisp/org-table.el...
>>
>> In org-table-align:
>> org-table.el:812:24:Warning: split-string called with 4 arguments, 
>> but accepts
>>     only 1-3
>>
>> this might be related to my error ... line 812 in org-table.el:
>>
>>    (split-string (buffer-substring beg end) "\n" t "[ \t]")))
>>
>> My Emacs version is 24.3.50.1
>>
>> - thomas
>>
>>
>> On 28.10.2017 12:01, thomas wrote:
>>>
>>> Hi!
>>>
>>> org mode table align (<TAB> key) is broken on my installation.
>>>
>>> I'm using the latest version from github:
>>>
>>>  Org mode version 9.1.2 (release_9.1.2-154-g99dbca @ 
>>> /home/thomas/dev/elisp/orgmode/org-mode/lisp/)
>>>
>>> This is the message I get when pressing <TAB> on any table:
>>>
>>>  org-table-align: Wrong number of arguments: #[(string &optional 
>>> separators omit-nulls) "ƒ
>>>
>>> This is the output from toggle-error-on-debug:
>>>
>>>  Debugger entered--Lisp error: (wrong-number-of-arguments #[(string 
>>> &optional separators omit-nulls) "\203
>>>
>>>  [separators omit-nulls split-string-default-separators list 
>>> notfirst start t 0 nil string-match rexp keep-nulls string] 5 
>>> 1652423] 4)
>>>   split-string(#("| test\n" 0 6 (fontified nil face org-table) 6 7 
>>> (fontified nil)) "\n" t "[     ]")
>>>   org-table-align()
>>>   org-table-next-field()
>>>   call-interactively(org-table-next-field)
>>>   org-cycle(nil)
>>>   call-interactively(org-cycle nil nil)
>>>   recursive-edit()
>>>   debug()
>>>   call-interactively(debug record nil)
>>>   command-execute(debug record)
>>>   execute-extended-command(nil "debug")
>>>   call-interactively(execute-extended-command nil nil)*
>>> *
>>>
>>> I can't figure out what's wrong with my installation ... any 
>>> suggestions would be very helpful!
>>>
>>> thank you,
>>>
>>> thomas
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> *
>>> *
>>>
>>
>