Hi Dennis, et al.,

I ended up pulling the rack.  Inside the rack on the passenger side,
there is a tubular bushing that is held in with a circlip and goes
around the rack.  This had totally disintegrated, leaving that end of
the rack to flop around.  The tie rods were fine and still properly
screwed in.

I still had the steering rack I had previously removed, where this
bushing is merely (prematurely) worn, so I put that back in so I could
reasonably keep driving.

I'll begin checking with our vendors, but I would very much appreciate
any pointers to more durable manual rack options that don't involve
custom-fabricating delrin bushings...
Thanks,

Alex