Turns out, I guess I got lucky. I installed one of MWB's aluminum bushings to replace the given-up OEM type that provided frightening free-range RF wheel alignment...
The old & new..
Thankfully, it was NOT terribly difficult to loosen the ball joint from the end of the rack using two large crescent wrenches & a foot....the new bushing slid in easily (had to carefully file some marring on the end of the rack from previous staking...
and here it is installed. Notice it is maybe a mm proud of the housing, which I can't really compare to the factory installation since I have no experience with these. I used a drop of blue locktite on the threads of the small allen bolts that hold it in place (3x)...seemed like not a bad idea & for that small diameter, that's fair practice on some bicycle stuff I do since there can't be a lot of torque.
I need to re-lube the rack & will install this evening. I did notice the rack has been hot in the past. This car is a 1985 Bertone & at best it is a 'rescue' (the kind of Fiat I love!) so I can only assume it's had a hard life from top to bottom...is it normal for there to be such blueing of the rack?
Once i decide what to re-lube with, I'll put the rack back in (and then I can tackle the cobbled up radiator fan wiring & splayed nose that will make the early grill & spoiler hard to mount....fun!). The rack so far has been amazingly smooth to do. The 4 mounting bolts in the cabin are not hard to reach, column was typical and everything seemed to cooperate. The aluminum works housing was pretty caked with grease & had a nice baked-on layer that I cleaned...so it will go back in maybe not pretty, but at least less ugly. I figured I'd like to have a nice known starting point to be able to detect leaks or other problems I may not feel first. I really don't know how long it was being run with some degree of loose bushing on the right side or what impact that would have had.
Hope this is helpful for someone. I know there's plenty of documentation on this stuff here, but I also know that some of the older threads I found had dead photo links, which is a bummer.