You can get around the problem, but it i s a little bit of work. Here is how I did it many years ago. I think I still have the shifter somewhere. I'll see if I can find it and take pictures to make it a little bit clearer what I'm trying to explain.
To get around the steering column lower bowl rotating, reemove the linkage from the column to the transmission and also remove the bracket that is on the brake combination valve. Drill a 1/16" hole into the metal bracket for the wire harness that is located below the master cylinder. Safety wire the lever to this metal bracket so the column was always in "park". Remove the p/n switch from the column since it is no longer functional. To get reverse lights, p/n signal to the ecm and a safety start, get a shifter and the wire harness connctor from a wrecked automatic trans Firebird/Camaro- all of these functions are on a shifter mounted switch. Cut off the bracket from the F-car. Cut a slot in the GN shifter handle so the tang from the F-car switch would go into it. Clamp the new switch and bracket to the G/N shifter with a pair of Vise-Grips. Check it with an ohm meter to make sure all of the switch functions occur correctly with the shifter in each position. Weld the bracket to the shifter. The bracket itself has slotted mountings for small adjustments. Make a wire harness with 18 gauge wire from the GN's p/n input and reverse lamp connectors over to the correct wires in the F-car switch. Remove the purple wire from the ignition switch and use ten gauge wire to go to the F-car switch and back to the ignition switch for the safety start. Cover the wire harness with a piece of black split plastic conduit. Even the console plate fits and you'll never know its there.
The wiring connections to make:
F-car switch G/N wiring on column Function
A Orange/black P/N input to ECM
B Black/white
C Light green Reverse lamps
D Dark blue
E Purple Safety start
F Wire to term S on ignition switch
