There's a thread on rebuilding steering boxes here which shows how to make a tool (apparatus) to measure the smallest rotational frictions factors. It involves a wooden board with a hole that attaches to the shaft you're moving, a couple weights and some high school physics including the math.

In your case the math won't matter. You mount the board (level) on a horizontal oriented shaft and move the weight along the board starting near the shaft center until the shaft rotates. That will be the reference point for your goal of resetting the bearing friction.

I looked a bit for the thread yesterday but couldn't find it. I believe the simplicity of what it would take to manage your issue is much less than setting the friction on the output shaft bearing on a steering gear.

__________________
84 300SD
85 380SE
83 528e
95 318ic