I dropped distributor bolt into where the fork by the slave cylinder is. How bad is it?

 

It's not terrible. Starting the car with it in there would be horrible however.

You will have to likely remove the trans to get it out. First however I'd get a flashlight and a telescoping magnet and see it you can fish it out of there.

 

If I have to separate I'm just going to try to put a trans from a 97 in do you think it will work. My car is the 1.5 16 valve. I just need it to get to work

 

try and take off the clutch cover and see if you can get to it from the bottom

 

Pull off the clutch slave cylinder for clearance, and the inspection plate. See if you can find the bolt, if you can see it, try this:

Use a metal coat hanger and fish it through the slave cylinder hole and out of the inspection plate gap between the flywheel and transmission case. Use a small button magnet attached to this hangar that will fit between the flywheel and transmission housing, and catch the bolt. Pull it out the slave hole if you do not have room to fish it out between the flywheel and transmission.

If the bolt went in through the slave hole, this trick should work because you should see and be able to move the bolt.

This doesn't work in some cases, but I have used this trick once on an F150.

 

I ran it threw and it came out where you change the trans oil.

 

If you dropped the bolt into the outside of the trans (into the area where the clutch is) and it came out of the drain plug hole, you need a new clutch housing and possibly more.