clutch cable

[mark sweetser]

on my '87 lx, my bbk clutch cable snapped the other day about 4 inches from where it hooks into the quadrant. i got a new one from auto zone that lasted about 4 miles. the plastic piece that mounts the cable in the bellhousing sheared through, causing so much slack in cable that clutch pedal was dead and unusable. install of the new one seemed fishy though...we had to pry the clutch release shaft on side of tranny forward (like pedal was being depressed) to allow enough clearance to hook up the cable on the release shaft. my haynes manual said nothing about this. book claimed i needed to "simply" pull up on clutch pedal to allow quadrant to roll forward. this didn't allow enough slack to hook up cable. was my cable too short? did i do something wrong? what cable do you guys recommend so next one won't shear through? car does have BBK quadrant. i had to get a tow-truck to get it home. freeway isn't a good place to wrench on cars. she's lame right now. let me know what's up.