Ok, so I'm in the process of restoring and modifying 1964 Fiat Abarth (600 based). Yeah, yeah....I can hear all the laughing! But, this will be a pretty great little Abarth, with coilovers front and rear, with wildwood brakes all around, full cage, and ready to race.

The steering box is shot, and to fit a wildwood master cylinder, it will interfere with the steering idler arm, so I'm thinking I should just go with rack and pinion for smother operation with fewer wear points. So, to do this, I have some questions.
  • How do I chose the length of the unit?
  • It's a Fiat, so I'm assuming the rod ends are metric...does this change which rack I buy?
  • Steering column is splined, so I'm assuming I'll need to extend that, and have a knuckle depending on location/angle. Any other considerations there?
  • Should the rack be mounted essentially at the same position relative to the suspension, etc, or is there some guidline for mounting location?
  • Anything else that I should consider with this project?

Thanks for any guidance!