760 Sanity Check- AW71 Kick Down Cable/Shift Question

Car is the 85 760 Turbo in my signature.

Got it back driving again after a long while sitting and after about 50 miles the car started to shift extremely hard. It's also very reluctant to shift- at light constant throttle it holds on to first until 3500 RPM then slams into second, and highway driving it sits at 60MPH right around 3k and refuses to go into OD until 80-85 MPH. Fluid level is OK but old, getting changed tomorrow anyway.

Did a quick search here and it seems my symptoms are indicating a broken kick down cable, but the cable itself doesn't look broken- only the sheath around it when it was crimped to the ferrule-



Am I going nuts or would this be causing these shifting problems?

I thought my '89 760 turbo wagon was not shifting into gear properly... it was acting very much like you describe your ride to be doing. I took it to my Volvo dealership where they still have the same mechanics that worked on my car when it was new and sold from their sales floor. They could find no issues other than to slightly adjust the kick down cable and said that perhaps, I expected my older model Volvo to shift like the newer cars.
So, I don't think you are crazy.

If the cable is binding inside the sheath it's causing your shifting problem. New cables are NLA from the dealer but IPD has an aftermarket cable available.

https://www.ipdusa.com/products/7422/103080-volvo-kick-down-cable-240-740-940-aw70-aw71-aftermarket-vr382-1239932

push the sleeve of cable back into the metal housing as far as you can.
tie a zip tie to the cable by the firewall/to harness so it helps to keep it straight, not too tight give it some room to move then test it, i bet it will shift better. if so you may need a new cable...

Dunno if this would happen the same in a 7-series, but when I acquired a $600 89 240 in 2003 with nearly 300K on it, I found the kickdown cable was exposed to heat near where the headpipe had a crack in it. I worked engine oil into it, and it still functions now driven daily.