It's kind of hard to tell, but is the van column splined where the rag joint would go? If so you need to remove that and get a u joint and add a lower steering column from a truck to it. look here at post #35 page 2
http://www.67-72chevytrucks.com/vboa...=259536&page=2 , It is also hard to tell but that doesn't look like a 79 van column.