Ok, so I'm not sure where to go from here, apart from try a Lokar throttle cable. The original cable won't get down to a straight enough angle so I had to try putting springs in all kinds of funky positions, to give me some kind of return when I pressed the pedal down. So when the throttle finally acted normal enough for a test drive, I had nothing, wound up, could hear the pump in the trans winding, but she wouldn't shift. Throttle cable from Lokar is about another 50 bucks, probably the cheapest solution at this point but I'm concerned the trans is toast.