My bearings were shot in my truck a while back. Little over a year ago.
Heres a video I took showing how bad it was. Would catch and stick, very dangerous to drive.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VTdC7uEhHc&list=UUxyF3wMxkG1c84BFbaoDNHQ&index=9
I bought the rebuild kit from Ford which at that time was a hair over $100. Not sure on the price nowadays.
Part number: F6AZ-3605-AA
Kit includes;
-steel tolerance ring/3L539
-stamped steel sleeve/3518
-bearing preload spring/3520
-upper bearing snap ring/3C610
-steering wheel attaching bolt/N807493-S100
-small upper bearing/3517
-large upper bearing/3517
-Instructions
Ide say its just as easy if not easier then messing with swapping entire columns. Took me about 2 hours taking my time. Old bearings fell out in chunks. Usually the shaft is pretty worn or scared up as well. Back when I did mine I researched it a lot. Some people recommended buying and installing a new shaft, as to not prematurely damage the new bearings. Others said that if its not TOO bad to take a scotchbrite pad and smooth the shaft some and take any sharp edges off. I was operating cheap back then and did not change the shaft. So far so good. Probably put over 40k miles on it since then. No issues at all. Hope this helps.