Honda Harmony II clutch cable dilemma

The clutch cable on my Harmony II mower started to fray so I decided to order the cable and replace it myself. All was going well - I disengaged the end of the cable from the transmission, undid the zip ties holding the throttle cable to the clutch cable, unhooked the spring end of the cable from the handle bar assembly but I am totally flummoxed trying to figure out how they got the cable through the small plastic assembly that is clamped to the throttle handle with one 10 mm bolt. It looks like the cable end was threaded through this holder before the end of the cable was soldered to the small metal ball that keeps the cable from coming out of the spring at the end. The new cable I purchased from Honda is the exact match for the old one but I have no idea how to get the cable through the cable holder assembly without cutting the small metal ball off the end, threading it through the holder and reattaching some kind of new ball to the end of the cable after it goes through the spring. I wonder if there is a new cable holding assembly that is necessary after the factory cable set-up fails??

 

Is it possible to feed the cable through in the other direction? Maybe the other end of the cable will fit through the hole. Have a good one. Geo

 

Unfortunately, the other end of the cable also has a soldered metal piece that fits into the hole at the transmission end.