I had a "once upon a time" column shift column in my car. By "once upon a time" I mean someone before me pulled part of the guts out of it, but not all. I believe the shift tubes and levers were still in it, but the actual shifter up at the column was nowhere to be found and just has a shroud that turns freely (and has an awful lot of bondo in it to cover up the hole it seems). I gutted it the rest of the way and pulled the shift tubes out when I did my swap. I didn't cut the housing all the way back to the firewall though. I'm trying to remember if I cut anything at all, but I want to say I just pulled the guts and put the bearing back in at the end. Now I'm going to have to pop the hood over lunch and take a look, lol.