Thanks for the pic and post.
Tractor Supply had those 3-way doo-dads on cheap
a while back and I grabbed one. By the time I had
$50 of adapters and fittings in hand to get it to fit,
I decided that I didn't need it as much.
I would have probably done it like you did.
Your fittings should have screwed right into that three way port - they're
simple 1/4 NPT threads. I had one once but I quit using mine also, just
because it was too cumbersome.
--
-Mike-