[zippy_gg]

I bought a factory short shifter for my 86 cab, along with the coupler bushing, ball cup bushing, and the rod bushing. I also bought the Seine gate system... while I was there. This was to try and remedy the issue my car is having while shifting up from 2nd to 3rd, and downshifting from 4th to 3rd.
Upon disassembly I discovered that the car already had a short shifter, the lower and upper pieces had already been tack welded, and the OD of the lever had also been reduced for better lever-to-fork clearance. Also the bushings were in much better shape that I had hoped for (since I wanted to solve a shifting issue), although they had a bit of wear but were obviously NOT the original ones.

Now comes the fun part: removing the shift knob.
According to the Bentley, for my model year all I had to do was pull (or hammer out) the knob. That didn't work well as the base of the knob cracked, but I found that I could then unscrew the knob. In the first pic you see what is left on the shifter, compared to the new shifter that I bought (but won't use) in the 2nd pic.


Below are the same shifters from a different angle:



Questions: Was this the right setup for an 86? Do I need to remove that "thing" at the end of my shifter, or do I need to keep that? Best place to get a replacement knob?
TIA!