Owners Forums for Ford and Volkswagen MPVs / SUVs

hey guys.  so as most of you know. my gear box when bang recently so it was replaced with a second hand unit from the breakers yard. not long after that i lost the gears due to the selector on top of the gear box partly seizing up so it was removed. greased up and refitted which has been fine till now.......... now while out and about in rush hour traffic. i lost my gears again and could only get second gear so had to limp the car home doing under 30 mph on a motorway with my hazards on .me thinking that the gear linkage cables had broke so i started pulling the car apart only to find that the pinch bolt on the gear selector has sheared off again falling into the gearbox.  on the plus side of things ive removed the selector today . removed the threads off the pinch bolt that had sheared off so that only leaves me with fishing out the head of the bolt from the gear box.  the question is......... i have 2 ideas but which will work? first one if i drop the gear box oil will the pinch bolt head come out with the oil? other idea was to fish about with a magnet to see if i can retrieve it that way. do you think any of these ideas will work guys? also there is a d shaped plate on the end of the gear box. could this be removed to fish about with a magnet? guys. rant over lol..

Cheers insanity. I'm getting quite an expert at pulling the gear selector out of the car lol. I've had a fish about in the top of the gearbox where the selector fits with a telescopic rod  with a magnet on the end and no Joy.  also took the drain plug out expecting the oil to come  out but it was parked half on the kerb so non come out lol. My other ideas was to remove the end plate on the gearbox and fish about in there. Ain't done that yet. Last resort was to split the box to see if it falls out. Doable? If its lodged somewhere what's the chances of it staying there if I just replace the pinch bolt and box it up? Cheers guys.

I was shocked no oil come out too Chris. There's deffently oil in there lol though when the replacement box was fitted the drive shaft passenger  side leaked which overtime pretty much stopped to a seap.I was planning on having a progg around in the sump plug hole but with a metal coat hanger. If I unbolted the box from the engine and left a gap between the engine and box do you recon I could get the telescopic magnet in there to fish it out. I don't have the time or facility's to remove the drive shafts. Any ideas guys. ? I'm so selling this now when its fixed. 

Cheers Chris. I realized that after I said that  lol. Think I need more sleep hehe. So what's the d shaped plate on the end of the gear box? Can that be removed to have a poke about with a magnet?. If all else fails today its Going as spares or repair online. I'm going to see a vw Passat tomorrow so hopefully  I'll be mobile again. Cheers for the help  Chris