New owner of 2001 986 S

[Jasper7821]

Hello,
Looking for some advice. I just bought the car yesterday. Has a few things that needs to be looked at, but overall a great car with a great owner I bought it from.
Took it for a drive today and drove around normal except one time took it to 6k or little over and it was great.
Than coming to a light and it’s wouldn’t go into any of the upper gears (R,1st,3rd,5th) it started to work a little bit only a few times. Got home and the prior was nice enough to to come to my house and think the issue was found.
Question is, is there a easy way to put the cables back into the channels? And don’t know how they popped out in the first place.
Also, it happened only once while this was going on but one tome the clutch pedal didn’t fully lift back up. The car was in gear doing fine but I had to put my foot behind the pedal and pull it out about 1/2”.

Also, I could smell something like a burning smell. When I got home in the garage and he came about 20 minutes later and it still smelt. Any clue what it could be. He thinks maybe something happened with the throughout bearing or something around there.

Any advice would be great.

Photos will not upload from my phone, will all later.
Basically both thrift cables have a mount that fit into a U channel and they both popped out of that channel.