Thank you for the thoughts.
Initially I replaced the upper bearing and turn signal without removing and examining the steering column. That diminished the scraping noise a bit. Following that I removed the column and took everything apart and cleaned, greased and put back together. Everything was examined for a missing bearing and any metal shards. This improved the steering exponentially but the noise still existed though very minimal. It continued to come from the same area.
The shaft is not bent its the column the shaft goes into. The top of the column just below the turn signal is slightly bent. When stand by the door and you look at the column, you can see the bend in the column.
Your link above was very insightful.
