I dug into the steering column today. I don't know what they normally look like, but this was really stiff. All of the ball bearings were there, but they come out of the race pretty easy. The cam follower has a couple of spots that are a bit flat. This looks like a great buy to clean things up a bit:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Cub-Cadet-1...-/322240084280. Any recommendations on this segment of the rebuild?