I had a shade tree mechanic put on a new steering wheel - there was a gap up by the wheel when he got it assembled that has mostly been closed. He told me there was a bearing that was "slipping". The metal dust is new.
95% of the time the cause of some new mystery problem is related to the last thing done on the vehicle, so this makes sense. As others have noted, the steering wheel is probably grinding on the column because it's missing a spring or spacer or the nut is just cranked down way too tight.
Here's a video showing the area in question and how to remove the steering wheel to check. This shows an aftermarket steering wheel, which may or may not look like what you have, but the process is the same:
A screenshot showing the spring:
![1723400248240.png 1723400248240.png](https://classicbroncos.com/forums/data/attachments/929/929663-8794b5e3bfd5454a1d578e67137f8e9a.jpg)