Hi Gary,

I wouldn't kiss that AW-70 goodbye quite so fast, they're really very sturdy in my experience.

The clue you gave about the kickdown cable popping out of the spool once before is another arrow pointing to a sticky cable. For it to pop out, it must have gone slack at the top when you released the foot feed, indicating strands fraying inside or rust grabbing it. Sounds like time to dribble in some ATF. You can disconnect it again, just to see if your revs are much lower at shift points, but be careful about hitting the expressway ramps.

I believe all the detent is in the transmission. You could disconnect the linkage and run it through the gears from below to make sure it feels right, but you still may have a problem in the shifter box (falling apart maybe) lending some friction or binding to the feel. Yes, there is an adjustment, but if you haven't been hit from behind, and the mount wasn't torn, I wouldn't expect the linkage to need length adjustment (the knurled part in my pix). If there's no slop, then the bushings must be there OK. It just doesn't sound like a problem in the tranny itself, from your description.
--
Art Benstein near Baltimore

Acupuncture is a jab well done.