Sorry about that. I misread what year you have. You have the VATS style unit with the black pellet in the key. What you need to do is meter that pellet to see what the resistance is. Once you get that value, goto Radio Shack and get a resistor (you may need a few to get close to what you need. Also, it's better to be a tad higher than lower in value. So, if you need 860ohms and can either get 855 or 870, it would be better to go with 870)
Then, under the dash you'll see what looks like a decent sized orange wire that kinda goes towards the middle of the dash like it's going into the heater/ac fan area. Well, that's not one wire but 2 tiny white wires. You can follow it to where it goes to a 2 pin plug. Those are the VATS wires. Unplug or cut the wires and put the resistors inbetween the wires THAT GO INTO THE DASH and not back to the column. You'll need good quality barrel connectors or solder then and then wrap them with shrink tube or 3M Super 33+ tape.
Should be good to go. I have a '01 Firebird comming in the shop with the same problem Friday.