Older Harken Mainsail system retrofit

[Silver_Surfer]

hello,
I have a question regarding old harken battslide mainsail system, 22mm. I am looking at a new mainsail, and was hoping to use existing batt car system, I replaced all the bearings in the batt cars and intermediates with torlon bearings and new hardware for the batten receptacles. There is a retrofit for new pintel articulating link with 10mm threaded end for newer style batten receptacle's, very pricey.
The original north dacron mainsail had the battens in pockets terminating before the batten receptacles and the original .pdfs say to use the center 5 hole and punch a hole into the end of the batten.
1. does the original configuration work? or should I follow the harken recommendation and fit batten into receptacle and drill 5h hole?
2. Buy new retrofit pintal link and new batten receptacle? $200 per and 5 batt cars.