I very seldom repair my columns. I always buy a parts car or two, and just end up repainting and swapping. If I have time I'll look at my 62 column to get an idea what you're talking about. I've been working on 65 Cutlass columns lately so I don't want to get confused here.
I have a broken plastic bearing on my 65 442 column, but I just left it for now, as there's very little force on the power steering models. Now manual steering, a whole new story. Lots of wear on bearings and steering rods. I've actually had two separate cases where the steering wheels came off in my hands. The upper bearings cut right through the rods and I could pull them out by the steering wheel.