Im depressed

Hello
today I went under the car and moved the kickdown lever forward and it comes back on its own.
I did adjust the cable to try to stop so much pressure on the kickdown lever.
I jacked up the rear wheels and noticed it shifted into second much sooner, but still no third. Then I manually shifted from first to second, the shift was fine, then when I put it into third it shifted. But when I left it in drive no second to third shift.
Whats up with that?

thank you
George G