been there, done that.... doable, just tricky, be patient, use your brain a lot. to get the cover off you will also have to remove the cross member under tranny to drop the tail of tranny down a bit, otherwise cover will not come out.
main PITA will be undoing the M6 bolts that hold the cover... youll see

 

Thanks for the reply, I was thinking about trying something similar to your advice. I might not have to if what I'm doing right now works I'm trying too fish it out with a couple of coat hangers. I have a buddy that coming by to lend a hand he has one of those scopes you attach to your cell phone l'm hoping that will help once I can see what I'm doing.
I had planned on pulling the motor and transmission this summer to do some rust repairs and paint . Im just not up too it now especially since I just put a clutch in a week and a half ago, I'm still sore from that,lol. I have to keep this car on the road while I rebuild the E40D that goes in my van.

 

Hey BUD,, This is what you need, it is in the bottom draw on my red tool box

 

Mines fancier, has an led at the end with the claws, very handy at times

 

Here is one on Amazon, but Think I payed about $12.00 delivers, next day..

Magnet Pick Up Tool, 4 Claw Pick Up Reacher with LED Light Magnetic Long Spring Grip for Litter Pick Drains Home Sink Toilet Clean Dryer Vents : Amazon.ca: Tools & Home Improvement

Magnet Pick Up Tool, 4 Claw Pick Up Reacher with LED Light Magnetic Long Spring Grip for Litter Pick Drains Home Sink Toilet Clean Dryer Vents : Amazon.ca: Tools & Home Improvement

www.amazon.ca

 

And a bit of vaseline keeps it stuck on the end of the lever when installing it the second time

 

Thanks, I have one like aquanaut20's picture it's been hanging on my garage peg board I didn't keep it lubed so it rusted and siezed. I got 2 new ones, they will be here in the morning . The parts stores carry them but there low grade like my old one I upgraded and will stored them inside. Lol, definitely, that's how I got burned while taking it apart. I need to check the FSM and see what they recommend. I noticed some oil in linkage area also I had ment to find out if it should be dry or not

 

Anything under the top cover the shifter goes thru will get gearbox oil on it from splashing. Not much, but it will get up there. Vaseline is miscible with gearbox oil, and pretty safe with the plastic, you could use wheel bearing grease but I don't because you don't know what reaction it will have with gearbox oil. Check the FSM and follow its recommendations for appropriate lube.

 

not sure whoever proposed these tools have faced the same problem.... how on earth those grippers are going to get around the 90 degree neck of the shifter is beyond me...... i''d say im pretty handy with mc givering solutions but seeing how it looked like, didnt even try...
if that plastic piece ended up at the far end of the shifter cover jamming the shift rods, the only solution i could see was taking off the whole cover and opening the tin lid on the under side.

so good luck with your coat hanger/gripper hunting, maybe in your case the part decided to stay close to the shifteer hole and it will be easy to fish

 

Feel around in the top, mine popped out and was sitting incognito near the aft part of the shifter housing, took a bit of effort with bent coat hanger to fish it up and out.

 

Ok, I need to thank everyone especially Turboguzzi who told me to "Think" . My new tools from amazon were already at my door when I went outside at 7am this morning .
I decided to go back and look at a YouTube video part 2 of a 5 part video that Frank Cook did on a 95 tracker 5sp transmission. I like his videos because he has good lighting and give good views so you can see what your getting into before you start a project. When he turned the shift cover box upside down an then commented that the bushing could only go in one way the green light went on in my head so I put a dab of cooking oil behind each ear and grabbed my biggest pry bar and pulled my head out of my ass,lol.
I realized I had been looking at it backwards and should be fishing for the bushing under the shift linkage and toward the rear of the car and not the front, because the shifter pushes in the opposite direction that you are pushing or pulling. So it turned out that the bushing was tucked up in the driver side corner sticking 1/2 way up the wall because it's oily, it was almost invisible. Problem solved, it's shifting crisply now with the new parts installed.