This happened to me, there was a bang which I later assumed to be some of the cable strands breaking. Adjusted up and carried on, but later the cable snapped, it was the bit in the boden tube on mine. Get familiar with the replacement procedure and the condition of the boden tube because it might be best to replace that too if its shot, put plenty of grease on it when you replace it.
Long time since I bought one, but the cable kit from JK was fine. New German cable, flex conduit and wingnut.
If it does break you can still drive to a convenient place to change it, match the engine speed to the van speed in each gear and you can shift into neutral and then up or down. To get away from traffic lights stop engine and put in first, start engine in gear and drive off
Before pulling every thing out I'd be inclined to just let go the butterfly and pull on the cable to pull the pedal up...if it moves easily and drops back under its own weight then theres not much wrong with it. If it doesn't then its either lack of lubrication or the end result of lack of lubrication ie its fretted and catching in the conduit. One thing..the new cables appear to be slightly longer than the originals which means to get full adjustment something like a 10mm spacer needs to be fitted between the butterfly nut and the arm.
