The cable has come detached from the flush mechanism and I can't see how to re-attach it. Any advice appreciated. Many Thanks.

Hi everyone, i have a rental property that was rented in September 2018. While getting the unit ready, i decided to change out the toilet because the previous one was in poor shape. The floor is linoleum of some type and the closet flange is just about 3/8" raised relative to the floor. The toilet sits down fine without a ring in place. first time i installed the toilet i used a regular wax ring with the plastic chute piece. i had a difficult time getting that to sit correctly but was able to get it into place eventually. I moved on. A few weeks later the tenant called and said there was a small leak coming from the bottom of the toilet. i knew it was the wax ring. ive used those green half donut rings before but they are only sold at my local HD and i was lowes when i got the toilet so i jut went with the conventional wax ring. i stopped at lowes before i went back over there and got the oatey stackable synthetic ring (similar to the green half donut one) and some other supplies. when i arrived at the apt, i removed the wax ring and found that there were (2) of those plastic funnels in place ( i must have not removed the old when i initially removed the toilet) and thought ok that explains why it was a pita to get the toilet to sit right the first time. I read the instructions for the oatey ring and they tell you it works for flanges, below, at and above the floor. however my closet flange was just slightly greater than the height they recommend for 1 piece of additional rings to be added and just under the height to add a thicker ring. I tried both configurations. the thick ring had the toilet floating so i went with the thin ring. seemed ok but was still wasn't even. I shimmed the toilet square and called it a day. a few weeks later i get the same call. same leak. Damn. 3rd trip, i got the perfect seal wax ring, a new closet flange, and the green donut seal from home depot. i got the flange because the previous one had a metal outer ring which was rotted out so i figured i would get a new plastic flange and get that all square while i was messing with the toilet again. the closet flange was a compression type that inserted into my existing 3"? pvc pipe below the floor. this reduced the diameter of the plumbing below the floor for teh first few inches. i mention this because when i went to reset the toilet i used the perfect seal, which compressed down but the toilet was floating again and i coudlnt get it down more. i pulled it up and the wax had basically filled plumbing pipe in the floor. i thought this didnt seem right as it would severely restrict flow and scraped it all out. i moved on to the green donut seal. this too is supposed to be used for below, at and above grade flanges. you flip it upside down if you are above 1/4" but less than 3/8" above grade or something like that. i followed the official video adn read the instructions. When i set the toilet, it was floating. damn!!!. pulled it off and went back to the original oatey ring i was using. shimmed it again and left. well no surprise, a few weeks later, same call, some minor leaking. Im lost as to what to try next. the toilet i got was whatever the cheapest toilet from lowes was, so im wondering if that is part of the problem, although i imagine that opening on the bottom of a toilet is universally standard and wouldnt deviate much. also when i set the toilet without any wax ring it sits flush. the floor below is def a little low at spots but nothing crazy and certainly nothing that a shim here or there cant fix. I was thinking about getting a large ceramic tile and cutting a hole for the closet flange, essentially bringing the flange flush with the floor and then using a green donut seal or whatever. any thoughts on this? not sure what to do next. currently the tenant is using a towel to wipe the water up. its more a weep than a leak, so less than a cup of water a week.