gear shifter

Guys, my daughter has our 99 4-Runner at college and was home recently for Christmas. I drove the vehicle after some normal maintenance and noticed the shifter lever was loose (front to back) when in any position. i.e. - in D you can move the indicator on the left of the shift all the way to N...

so I've been doing a whole bunch of work on my land cruiser and i just put all new led's in the dash. when i assembled it i turned on the hazards to make sure they were working. when i did that there was a click in the safety lock for the gear shifter and every time the lights blinked the shift...

I have an automatic 1989 FJ62. I noticed that my gear shifter has been loose (jiggles right to left). I unscrewed the cover and looked at what appeared to be a spacer washer (not sure of technical term) that was worn out and broken and no longer useful. not sure is this was plastic or rubber...