In my experience, there's no detents or any of that found in a column that you need to worry about. If the column is unlocked and you take the backdrive/shift linkage off the column, the column shift tube can be rotated at will to any position. You'll need to do that anyway if you take the column out of the car. I've never felt any detents in the column moving the lever to remove or install a column.
Don't know if the rod is the only difference, but AFAIK, there's NO such thing as a designated 3 speed column and 4 speed column. According to my "bibles" (parts books) they either have tilt, no tilt, console, no console, pulse wipers, no pulse wipers...etc. Additionally, the 4 speed 4R transmission backdrive rod for consoles is different on Olds than on other makes. So you can't get one from a Monte and it be the same as the Olds. Don't know the difference, but it's a different part number. All the attaching parts for the linkage like springs, bushings, etc. are the same, but the lever cross shaft and the rod from the column are different between 3 speed and 4 speed. I've only lived in the 4 speed world so never had a 3 speed one to compare the physical differences. The 4 speed rod is longer it seems, but other than that...
The shift tube (which has the arm on the end) is the same part number for the G-body tilt and a different number for the non-tilt. Doesn't matter whether it's column shift or console shift, it shows the same part number for each. Only difference in the parts are if it's tilt or not. So the arm at the bottom of the shift tube should be the same regardless of column or console shift.
EDITED TO ADD: I"m full of BS. There are shifter gates in a column shift car, but none on the console shift cars. I finally found some good info in the parts book. However, there's only two detents listed, either tilt or not. Nothing about transmission speeds. So the mystery continues I guess.