Search "7406" on ebay and you'll find a store that sells 10 chips for a dollar plus 5.95 shipping. Three days in the mail. Radio Shack doesn't have em.
I am also figuring out a retro. The terminology is difficult for me to understand. Enable high, true high, floating high, sink, source,... it sure isn't like the knob and tube wiring in the milking barn.
The opto22 parts should integrate without any trouble. Which board you are using when your write "board wants pin shorted to ground"? I use grayhill boards that allow either negative true or positive true logic. They only hold four modules, but I don't need a header cable to connect. I can wire them a few different ways depending on the application.
There is a schematic for a opto22 board here. Is this what you are using?
http://www.opto22.com/asset/document...data_sheet.pdf
If so, maybe someone else can take a look and decipher.