That is for your steering lock ,and reverse light switch.There is a piece of linkage that attaches to that.Remember this is a street car.So don`t put a solid yoke in.It is designed to shear off in a accident ,so the column doesn`t come back and crush your chest.

I am replacing my original steering column (which has this lever) with an aftermarket tilt column and it does not have this lever. This is why I was asking about whether we needed to mod something up for this, or if we could just remove the linkage as it no longer has anything to connect?

As for connecting the steering column 1"DD end to the steering box, I found this from Borgeson.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/...zL._SX425_.jpg