OK, so i just took the entire cable assembly out my car.
this is a pita.
BUT i am now done and have the j barone ssp installed and working flawlesly.
i had to drill a hole slightly to the side of one of the plates that holds the cable because i felt the stock positioning + the jbarone ssp a little too far to the side in terms of the cables range of motion. This is why i cracked my ssp in the first place, i fudged the install and when i went into reverse for the first time the plastic guide tried to move farther then it could.
Lesson learned and now i now have about a 600 bucks put into the car only for shifter related parts lol.