Hi Bart , Setting up the control cables is important too. You want them as tight as possible. Its easier to thread the outer cable thru the bars if you push an inner thru from the fork end and use this as a guide for the outer .
To secure the stop on the bar end for the outer, I put the cable in a vice , place the stop over it and use a pair of side cutters to widen out one turn of coil, then drop the cable up to the stop in the jaws of the vice and flatten the coil against it with a small tap or two. This should give a tight stop, so that you can then pull strongly on the cable from the handlebar end to tighten up the small clips that hold the tension against the bar, and this takes some slop out of the action.
If you are using old , kinked inners, they can be straightend by putting one end in a vice, and pulling tight with a pair of vice grips. Having someone running a piece of wood over the kinked area under tension should straighten them out nicely.
White grease also seems to work well on the cable and twist grip, I use LOTS of it on the spiral area.