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As lynx say's it should work with those parts, but you say that your column is not grounded?
With a multi meter set to continuity apply one connection to the column and find a piece of metal attached to the upper column that remains stationary that is connected, preferably less than 1 ohm.
If you can locate that you can run a wire from that to earth and complete your circuit.
"The difficult we do at once, the impossible takes just a little bit longer" ;)
Multimeter?