No, it doesn't spin freely. The nut that screws into the bell housing is attached to the cable. The cable sheath is long, stiff and has a curve in it (the 12-year-old me is dying to come out right now!). It'll keep trying to unscrew itself until the nut is finally seated. If you have a friend, he/she needs to stretch the cable out and (try to) turn it counterclockwise while you're spinning the wrench clockwise. DON'T try to route the cable in the engine bay until AFTER you've wrenched it down. Hopefully you haven't clamped the bellow yet- if you did, detach it so it can spin with the cable.
I did it alone on 2 drives a couple of weeks ago. I stretched the cable out as straight as I could in the engine bay, and just went for it. After the nut was seated, I went back and gently bent/worked the cable around the route I needed it to follow.
My .02