73 Plymouth Duster, Two Red Wire Thing in Steering Column?

Boyfriend was going to change the ignition switch in his 73 Duster He's scratching his head at this component here, just below the ignition lock cylinder. It's connected to the old ignition switch plug then has two black wires to the other connector shown here :

The mystery component :
20190416_180005.jpg

The original connector:
20190416_175856.jpg
The comparison to the new one:

20190416_175910.jpg

Can't find the dang factory manual for the life of us. Do we need to remove those and put them in the new connector? What even is it lol. Thank you!

20190416_175847.jpg