ACB of your life insurance policy

I've been receiving email for weeks now, ever since I asked how the ACB of my life insurance policy from 1975 is calculated. You'd think this would be a running calculation provided by the company on an annual basis, but it doesn't seem to be and in fact it's been weeks since I first asked for this calculation.

This must be quite the production! More on this once I hear back from the company about their deliberations on what the ACB of my policy is. They've told me the NCPI but not the ACB.

I've been informed the ACB of any policy is defined in S. 148(9) of the Income Tax Act and it's calculated as (and this seems to require a manual calculation)
1) add premiums paid $11607  (26.08/month)
2) deduct dividends allotted ?
3) deduct any previous withdrawals ?
4) deduct pure cost of insurance ?

I've been informed my NCPI is $7215.33 which seems to be close to the total reported summary of my dividends that are added to my premiums paid to calculate my cash surrender value.

Re: 4) Since Bill C-139 introduced in 1982, we're required to deduct the Net Cost of Pure Insurance (NCPI) from any policy issued after Dec 1, 1982. NCPI is how we're taxed on the savings element of a life insurance policy. We're taxed on some formula where the pure cost is deducted from the ACB. 

I bought this $25,000 whole life policy back in the early 70's and I've never really understood why it's supposed to be such a great deal. The agent always tells me never let this one go.  So I pay $26/month and wonder just how much of a sucker I've been.  I've paid out over $12,000 over almost 40 years.

If I had saved $26.08 for 480 months at 5% annual yield, I'd have $40,000 in the bank.  If I died, the total death benefit is $38,424 because there's this special maturity dividend on death of $9200.

But my cash surrender value is $18,768.  Guaranteed value seems to be what I paid over the years at $26.08 per month =  $11607.50, plus special maturity dividends and dividends on deposit. 

Someone once told me that I could create a pension for myself out of this policy at some point, but I have no idea how you do that or how much that would provide in the way of income. 

Should I surrender the $18,768 and pay down my mortgage instead. Any thoughts?  Maybe when I find out the ACB it will provide some insight into how much tax would result if I surrender.