Clutch cable way too short

Just got the Grubee Skyhawk kit in finally. Looks like hooking the clutch up will be my first problem. There's just not enough cable coming out of the cable housing. There's 4 1/4" of cable but after you put on the spring, there's only one inch. It's a long stretch to get to the clutch pivot arm. I know the cable housing needs to be cut but my question is, can I do away with the ferrule on one end? I've tried to pull the ferrule off so I could trim the housing but it seems impossible to get off. I know some bike controls can be used without a ferrule but don't know about it in this situation. I'm sure this has come up before. Searched all over the place for 2 days to avoid starting a new thread but gave up. Thanks for any info.

Spunout said:

thats not an uncommon problem. just go to the bike shop and get a brake cable...its the same thing.
if you do get the ferrule off, then you run into the metal wound innards of the housing. too much trouble for me

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Thanks. No bike shops within 100 miles of me so have to usually do the southern engineering thing. I wonder if I could just shorten the spring bit? It's length looks like overkill but maybe it has to be that long to do the job. For now I'll just see if I can find a shorter housing in my junk and spare parts.