Changing out the shifter for a sweet J-tek and installing a new cable yesterday, I was painfully reminded of how unfriendly this process is to fingers and temper. Have any of you got any tricks that ease the process of putting that little retainer bolt that goes on the cable and seats (with difficulty and twisting) in the cassette pulley hook, all the while pressing the relatively sharp-edged pulley into position where the red marks are aligned and keeping them there, then tightening the retaining bolt nut? It's just as convoluted as it sounds, for those of you who haven't had the pleasure. If I could fit it in there, an extra hand (with tougher fingers) would be nice for this operation.
CC

yea easy. install the wheel in the frame. stick a 2mm allen in the hole of one the the plate and pull it down. now you have slack to slip in the cable hook thing. hard to describe but when someone shows you, you will be like OH!. which hub do you have. some are slightly different. i tighten the stopper nut before i hook it on the hub

Thanks for the allen key tip. I've got a Nexus 7 from '97-'98. If you tighten the nut before you hook it on the hub, how do you get the bolt in the right spot ( for the marks to be aligned)--trial and error? I've got a Jagwire in-line cable adjuster (the one with the little wheel), but that's not going to give me too much room for error, and moving the bolt around too many times will damage the cable.
CC

dont tighten the stopper piece so tight. a few times will get you close and then fine tune with a barrel adjusted

I just did this with a new Alfine.. the key was to make sure the barrel aduster was out a few turns incase I made the cable a bit too tight. Did you see this page by chance? https://sheldonbrown.com/nexus-mech.html#cableinstall

I just measured 101 mm as shown in the pic there then cliped the stopper piece in (at this point the cable was not aligned yet) Then I push the pully down to give slack and put the cable in the correct spot on the joint.. then I put the cable end into the arm of the joint. I was off by about a mm but the barrel adjuster took care of that.

Also make sure you are in 1st gear when doing the actual work, I just flip into 4th to test the alignment.

I installed an older Nexus 4 and the service instructions specifies that the cable fixing bolt should be 101mm past the end of the cable housing. Find the docs for your particular Nexus; they're very helpful (but might take some mad googling to dig up.) That allen wrench trick is illustrated, for instance.

I use an old spoke, snipped to about 6" long instead of the 2mm hex. Works like a charm.
Also, the J-Tek does not provide a tensioning barrel, nor does the hub. Use an in-line barrel adjuster to help dial everything in.

In case you don't already know, the indexing is pretty easy - once everything is attached, move the shift lever to 4th gear. Sight through the little window on the drive side of the hub, and you should see two yellow marks. When they are aligned with one another you are good to go.