After a lengthy hiatus, intermediate shaft teardown, inspect, and rebuild, part B...
The first order of business is to measure the intermediate shaft bearings. Bearing #1 (big end) measured within tolerance at 24.980mm and bearing #2 (small end) measured within tolerance at 23.968mm. Okay, good...
When I went to check axial play, there was none. Hmm...Gave some taps to each end of the shaft to seat the thrust bearing and still nothing. Hmm...does the shaft turn smoothly? Nope. So, I set up my dial indicator and measured about 0.040mm of runout. Yikes! Shaft must be bent...?
Since a new intermediate shaft is about $1,200, I decided to see if I could find a decent used one on ebay. Found one for $140...
Bearing #1 measured 24.978mm, which is just barely out of spec by 0.002mm but within the accuracy of my micrometer of +/- 0.004mm. I'm calling it good...
Bearing #2 measured within spec at 23.975mm.
It rotates nicely in the case and it seems to be good, confirming my fear the original shaft was bad. I will tear the "new to me" one apart, clean it, and rebuild it...