Steering Shaft Question

[cknfrmr]

Hello All. I'm going from 3 on the tree on my 69 to a Turbo 400. Currently swapin out the column. My question is this. Can I take the steering shaft that has the steering wheel mounted to it pull it out of the 3 speed column and slide it into the automatic column? I have tried and it does fit they are the same. The automatic column has some minor thread issues from prior owner. Thanks as always for your knowledge in advance.