[Vwdiesel] steering column bearing

[Doug]

While I had the instrument cluster out to re-glue the odometer gear, I 
found what was left of the steering column bearing being held up by the 
hose clamp that I put on some time ago to hold the bearing together. The 
problem was that the bearing cage was sitting on the hose clamp that was 
snuggled up to the u-joint that is down by the pedals. There aren't any 
rollers left in the cage and the plastic retainers are broken.
What will happen with this bearing missing? How difficult is the bearing 
to replace? I would expect that th steering column down to the u-joint 
needs removed to replace the bearing. If I want to replace the bearing 
with a higher quality bearing, where can I get a higher quality bearing 
and how do I describe what bearing I want to a bearing house or a car 
parts store?