Originally Posted by
coasting
if you are intending on replacing cable and housing as people are suggesting, you might as well spray wd40 into the old stuff before throwing it away. nothing to lose.
Easiest way to deal with this is never have old cables/housings. If you replace them regularly, chances of heads pulling off, cables seizing, or even decreased performance drops dramatically while you get a lot more miles without needing to fiddle with anything.