[damnyankee36]

Yep, you're right; the tabs you are talking about are indeed gone. I wonder why somebody would do that? Maybe they didn't realize that a simple twist would get the T/S housing off? I found this pic. I took it while disassembling my column.

If you look at the back of the T/S switch you can see grooves where the ends of these tabs insert. When you tighten the 3 screws it sandwiches the tabs between the switch and housing.

Mine is temporarily assembled at the moment so I can't tell what else you might be missing. I attached a few more pics that might help you. You can see the tabs in the last pic. The plastic ring and the bracket go inside the tube down to the angle slot. That's where you slide it toward the top of the column to take out the slack/looseness of the shifter housing. (I think, pretty sure that's what I remember).