Had the same problem this past winter. When cold my cable would not let the car out of 2nd gear if had to kickdown to merge with traffic, ect. I took the cable end off the throttle linkage and taped a little foil collar/funnel on the end. This way I was able to hold the cable upright and fill the funnel with tranny fluid. I filled the little funnel several times over a 2 hour period. All that fluid when down and has freed the cable up. Previously I had tried WD-40 many times with no luck.