Why wouldn't a .install file be loaded?
Turns out it was an error in hook schema() unfortunately the function failed more or less silently. For example :

'description' =&gt; array(
                'type' =&gt; 'varchar',
                'size' =&gt; 'normal',
                'not null' =&gt; TRUE,
                'description' =&gt; 'Description of vaule type.',
        ),


Failed.

'description' =&gt; array(
                'type' =&gt; 'varchar',
                'size' =&gt; 'normal',
                'length' =&gt; 255, 
                'not null' =&gt; TRUE, 
                'default' =&gt; '',
                'description' =&gt; 'Description of vaule type.',
        ),


Worked.

The problem was exacerbated by my mistakenly assumed notion that disabling and re-enabling a module would trigger the install, rather then the removal of the module from the system table.

Thanks again to everyone who provided feedback.