Speedo gear fell in transmission.

[projectPONY]

Is anyone in here familiar with the 4spd Muncie transmission? I was helping my BIL install a Hurst shifter on it yesterday, while still in the car, and we decided to pull the speedo cable off to gain a little more room to work. Well, as luck would have it, apparently the speedo gear is not attached to the cable like it is on a Mustang. It just slides into the end of the cable and you guide it in the hole meshing it with the output shaft. At least that is what I can come up with after researching it a bit. So, when I pulled the cable out of the transmission I noticed the gear was just laying there in the cavity of the transmission. I went to pull it out and that slippery sucker just went in deeper. Needless to say, after many attempts to reach it with no luck, my BIL decided to just leave it in there and replace it with the new, correct one.

Now, after looking at a bunch of exploded views of said transmission, there seems to be a gear retaining plate that separates the main body from the tail housing where the speedo gear located. I'm thinking that it could be ok to leave it in there since it appears that the only moving parts in the tail housing is the speedo gear and output shaft. Can someone confirm this for me or offer advise?

[CJ]

Yep just leave it in there, it's not going to hurt anything. Just make sure next time you pull the cable out first before trying to get the adapter/gear.