Mis y Mas

OK, among the few household plumbing problems I've mentioned in the last few months, here is the latest.

Bathtub refused to drain. Fortunately/unfortunately, this occurred after I took a shower, on Tuesday night, equivalent to Snuffy's Friday night. Yes, a shower. Yes, I had the drain switched open. No, we didn' think too much of it because the plumbing in that bathroom has been draining slower over the years. That is part of the 'we have to get pipes cleared out and new piping inserted' project that we've been trying to work to.

Note: this has been a problem since we no longer have equity to borrow on. But more on the pipes another time.

So, I did note there seemed to be more water in the tub after the shower than normal, but figured it would just take longer to drain. Didn't drain. After Snuffy toggled toggles and listened, we realized the drain mechanism had finally achieved FAIL and had broken/stuck/stopped working. In the stoppered position. Great.

Much plunging Tues night to shift the stopper mech (also to see if prior clogs were also affecting the drainage. Also draining of the tub. Remains of Tues night spent removing the top part of the stopper mechanism from the wall

BUT, we can't seem to get the rest of it out. And it seems to have shifted back into the closed position.

Now, per pics, the modern or 'seen within your lifetime' mechanisms have a spring at the end.

example of project, and pics

Now, a note about this. If you enlarge the pic, and look at the parts, we got most of the mechanism out. But,
1) our mechanism did not have a metal coil as the bottom of the pop-up linkage. We have short hollow tube. The part resembles an old fashioned scale weight--if one of those was hollowed out.
2) No waste arm came with it. Frankly, looking at the demo pic, we cannot figure out how anyone is expected to get that arm out of the horizontal pipe. I'm presuming its still in there, possibly with gunk still swaddled around it. (Yes, we popped draino down the drain this afternoon. Or, ore likely, it's still down there, but has shifted to "stopped" position.

Wondering if there was any flexible tool we could get down there and pull/shift/move that bar out, or at least move it from the stoppered position. He didn't see anything in Home Depot, but we are trying to figure out what to ask for.

Suggestions from handy folks?