It's just a guide, a "L" shaped, or right angle, bracket that's attached to the retract unit at the air input end using the screw that's there holding the unit together. The pushrod goes thru a hole in the end sticking out that's hopefully aligned up/down with the center of the pivot point and left/right with the slider arm. Alternatively, a fuselage mounted bracket with correct alignment can be used.

The slider arm should be long enough as is, assuming you have the steering arm snug against the bottom of the strut mounting block. It only has to get the slider up to the pivot point. Is this a belly mount unit or a firewall mount unit?

PS: If you clip both ends of the ball point pen spring, you can wrap it onto the slider arm without taking anything apart.