I guess it's a 5 speed box..and what you describe as missing is the plate and spring...reason you never got anything out the box is 1,is too large to come out the drain 2 .. there is a magnet in the box to catch the parts..to be honest you can do a basic check yourself on the 5 speed box..drain and remove the gearbox..remove the tacho sender ,to prevent it being broken ,remove reverse switch ,tucked away up in the front lefthand corner ,will need a deep 27mm multihex socket ..remove x1 allen screw (the 1 on the main casing) remove the turret .remove 3 small bolts in front of turret ,careful as there is a spring under each of them ,with a small magnet lift out the detents x3...undo the ring of bolts at rear and the 2 dowels and simply lift of the casing ..you will see the magnet and if anything is on it..also you can check 2nd ..from the top it goes 4th 3rd 2nd 1st rev and 5th ..did hundreds of them..is worth repairing,may only need 2nd gear bulk ring ,syncro and sleeve ,may also need bulk ring and syncro for 1st and 3 detents .as long as the other syncros are ok .which if it wasn't crunching they should be ...worth doing what i said as it will take away the fear factor of gearboxes,and you can always if you don't put it back together give it to whoever to repair it ..done hundreds of them
norb, December 2011
