I have a sloppy shifter so I took the 4 bolts out that hold down the spring and shifter. I stretched the spring apart a little to put more tension on the shifter to eliminate some of the slop. Sounded like a fairly straight foward task. I had a little trouble reinstalling the shifter because it is kind of difficult to turn the bolt while pushing down on the spring. Its a job where I wish I had 3 hands but stupid me, I was only born with 2. So I removed the plate that the shifter mounts to and then rebolted that to the transmission while the shifter was mounted.

My issue is that now the shifter feels as if its in neutral all the time. Is there a piece that may have fallen down into the transmission that the shift lever is supposed to connect to?

Are you sure you put the lower end of the lever into the fork channel.
I dont think there is any spacers on the lever end to fall off.
Tony

Sorry I dont know all the correct terms so a lot of the names of the parts will be referred to as, "you know the one thats ....."

The main problem I was having that night was that I only had the flashlight from myphone so I could see what I was doing. The next morning I took the cover that the shifter bolts to off and seen the parts that the shifter goes into to move the forks, "you know the one thats below the shifter plate", had fallen into the gears of the transmission on one side. So that caused the shifter to feel as if it were in neutral all the time.

I have it back together and it drives fine. Thanks.

Steve
You fell into a common trap that not only young players fall into it so dont feel bad.
Tony