I just took apart the steering wheel on my 75 1.8, because there is way too much play from side to side and top to bottom. The steering wheel moves about a half inch in any direction. As I took it apart I gathered what seem to be disintegrated parts of an old bearing, or something else, I don’t know, the image is attached. From what I could tell everything looked normal (I am a new 914 owner and new to old cars in general though, so I don’t really know what to look for.) Has anyone had this problem before? What is the disintegrated stuff?

Where exactly were you in the dis assembly process when you found this. It is possible that it's part of a bearing...but need to know where it was found.

Found it after in the housing for the turn signals and ignition, in that chamber. There’s a bearing in there that all of this crud was sitting on.

That’s a common problem on 75-76 914’s. The inside of the plastic bearing disintegrates. The quick fix versus a new bearing was to cram this sleeve down the inside of the bearing. They used to make one for the 914, I can’t find it. It looks like this one. https://www.stoddard.com/92834773902.html.html

914rubber offers them. The bushing and the cover as a package.

Could you link this? I've been looking but can't seem to find it.

There is a bearing in the column that I may or may not have, but it's possibly that, and this is the one toward the rack.

https://914rubber.com/steering-bearing-1

There are others but this is where I'd put my money

https://www.autohausaz.com/pn/12912543-9283...o0aAiuGEALw_wcB
Or Pelican its the same part.
https://www.pelicanparts.com/More_Info/9283...aAi6zEALw_wcB#0

How difficult is it to replace this? I have the same issue, the shaft moves and it is awful when driving and hitting bumps. Any direction from experts here on how to replace?

Replace the bearings / bushing in the steering column.

Not a terrible job but it will be a lot easier if you just remove the steering column from the vehicle.

The bearing that Mikey914 showed, supports the steering shaft that comes directly out of the steering rack. It is located in the Frunk under the gas tank. That bearing being bad will not cause you to feel vertical or horizontal slop in the steering wheel as you go over bumps.

See Haynes manual or factory manual on info how to remove the steering column. It’s a couple hour job. The exact parts you’ll need will be dependent on whether your steering column is early or late style.

For the bearing I showed you have to get under the fuel tank. It could be possible to get to it from underneath, but is probably easier to remove the tank.