I had exactly the same problems with mine until I got the 36 inch cable from B&M.
It doesn’t go farther forward than the bell housing an makes near a perfect half circle from the shifter to the trans linkage.
It was called Heavy Duty Race cable and is a lot tougher with less deflection.
It feels WAY more solid when shifting also.
I did have to make a spacer ring on my Hurst Pro Matic cable pin on the shifter, but everything else was the same.
Trans is probably just fine, as I doubt you were going fast enough to hurt anything.
Those TF’s are tough as hell.
