Yeah, w/o a cable attached it'll swing out freely - but that's normal. It
should work fine if with a significant amount of pressure, going in the proper direction. When mine was new I simply couldn't apply enough pressure by just pushing by hand on the lil stubby arm, I hurt my hand tryin' lol
A touch of grease in the pivot helps a lot (even just a dab on the ramp plate inside) and should it still be tough to pull with the cable/hand lever - remember to route the cable with as few (and gentle) bends as possible and lube the cable well.
Outa be fine - but if not, give us another shout-out
