I swapped an 84 column into my 82 a while back. It's not tough. There is a thru-bolt that connects the steering shaft to the end of the column by the brake booster. You will probably have to tap it apart with a hammer and a block of wood. There is a collar on the firewall with 2 studs. Remove the 2 nuts and you are done at the front end of the column, unless it's an auto column. Then you just pull the pin and remove the shifter linkage. In the cab at the base of the column by the firewall there is a plate and rubber gasket with half a dozen or so little bolts. Remove those. Unplug the park safety switch if you have one. Towards the steering wheel under the hush panel the column is held up by two more nuts. When you remove those the column will drop. As you do this you will see the wiring that needs to be unplugged. There is a long flat connector for the turn signals, and 3 plugs for the ignition switch. I think that's it. Then pull the column up through the firewall and you have it. I don't know anything about replacing the bearing you speak of, though. Somebody else can probably tell you about that. You may not even need to pull the column, but that's how you would do it.
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