Has anyone else succesfully replaced thier shift cables?

After multiple trips to the dealer to replace the "White" shift cable clamp on my '99 SE Sport I've ended up with the early style round shaft cable assembly. I removed the old cables, but can't seem to be able to force the new cable ends up through the gap between the floor board and the engine cradle. There's a little saddle the cables are supposed to lay on but there's no way in hell those things will fit through there. HELP!!! is there something I'm not seeing, something else that needs to be removed? Any Ford mechanics out there that know the trick?