Toilet Flapper won't open up

Here's what happened to me, with the Tecma....the plastic piece where the water is distributed (back center) cracked by age and the piece went down into the macerator..stopped it dead...I had to lift the toilet, remove the motor form the bottom etc and open up the motor and out came the part of the plastic piece...and that freed it up..I was wondering what happened to the rest of it...it went into the black tank and when my sanicon was pumping it got into that and I had to disassemble that to get it out Needless to say I'm not a fan of the Tecma Toilet...by the way, the parts for that thing are outrageous..I wanted to replace the top seat as the metal assembly was corroding. (250 bucks)...I made my own assembly..the buttons work but the soft piece was starting to rip...they want 240 bucks for that button...I'll live with the slight imperfection....Good thing I had latex gloves when I pulled that toilet and the wires had no slack at all and it was a bear to get them back together.