I recently pulled the engine and transmission on my 1988 190E 2.3

Now that the unit is being reinstalled I noticed that when hooking up the shift linkage that the nylon Bushing that goes in the transmission shift lever (On the transmission itself, NOT the shifter) must have been damaged or lost as it is not there. (I can't feel it).

Problem is I cannot for the life of me figure out how I'm going to get at it to replace it. There is very little room between the transmission and the surrounding tunnel. I have left the exhaust and the drive shaft unhooked and tried to lower the rear of the transmission enough to actually see where this bushing is supposed to go. All I can do is get my hand up there to feel it. Is there something I'm missing here? An access panel? Do I have to pull the whole engine and transmission back out of the car to replace this part?

I have been reading how easy this part is to replace , but I must conclude that it's only easy if the unit is out of the car....

Pulling the engine/transmission again is not an option.