The blue and red fittings is the throttle cable, the one with what you call the white thing on it is the transmission kick down cable. You want to adjust that cable so that when you pull it out about 1/2" and let it slap back in you can hear a small but audible "clack" noise from inside the trans. This is the sound of the valve that it controls slapping firmly shut. If it needs adjustment loosen the 2 13mm nuts that secure the cable and adjust it so that it is a little on the loose side, tighten the adjustment up to the point where the slap noise just goes away and then loosen it up just a tad to the point where you can hear that noise again when you pull the cable out and let it slap back. At this point it should be right on the money and you can lock the 2 13mm nuts back down. If you do not know, the adjustment on this cable is acheived by adjusting the two nuts so that more or less of the end of the cable sheath sticks out past the nuts. More sheath and cable sticking out equals a loose adjustment, less cable and sheath sticking out equals a tight adjustment. A loosely adjusted cable will result in rapid upshifts and delayed to nonexistant downshifts. A tight cable will be the opposite and will be most noted by late, neck snapping upshifts. If some bozo has replaced the kickdown cable and put the little retainer on the cable in the wrong place you will never get it set right. The little retainer is what you refer to as the white thing in the picture. If it is set too far out on the end of the cable it is no big deal really but if someone crimped it too far down on the cable you will never be able to get enough cable back into the sheath to get your correct adjustment. If you run into this situation then I advise you to adjust it to the best possible position and run it. If it still shifts late due to a tight cable then you will need to carefully cut it off of the cable and adjust it properly, that piece should be available seperately.

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