Optimization needed on string parsing

Below is a fraction of a stored procedure I am writing to parse out some non-normalized data into a more normal form.  

What we have are data records containing two specific fields:  MMYString (varchar 255) and MMYLongString (text).  These hold strings containing the make, model, and year of vehicles that the product can be used with.  The MMY strings look like this:

HONDA;CRF250R;2006|HONDA;CRF250R;2005|HONDA;CRF250R;2004

The information will be in MMYString unless the data length is more than 255 characters.  Then the data will be in MMYLongString, and no information will be in MMYString.  Note that we have data strings well over 30kb long for some cases.

I have created a routine that will strip the information out of a text field, and incorporated that into my code, a piece of which is below.  I am looking for any assistance in optimizing this routine, since I would like to run it nightly, and the process takes over an hour at this time.

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DECLARE @text table(txt text)


SET @separator = '|'

DECLARE c_Parse CURSOR FOR
      SELECT p.ProductID, lastModificationDate
      FROM SearchJoin sj
      INNER JOIN product P
            ON sj.productid = P.productId
      WHERE MMYExists = 'Y'
            AND lastmodificationdate >= @Cutoff
      ORDER BY p.ProductID

OPEN c_Parse
FETCH NEXT FROM c_Parse INTO @PID, @LMD

WHILE @@FETCH_STATUS = 0
BEGIN
      SELECT @WorkStr = ISNULL(MMYString, '') FROM searchJoin WHERE productid = @Pid
      IF @WorkStr = '' -- Data in mmylongstring
      BEGIN
            INSERT INTO @text
            SELECT MMYLongString AS Txt
            FROM SearchJoin sj
            WHERE sj.ProductID = @PID

            SELECT @i = 1,
                  @len = datalength(txt),
                  @curpos = 1
            FROM @text

            WHILE @curpos <= @len  -- Parse out a text field of arbitrary length in the
            BEGIN
                  select @lastpos=@curpos
                        ,@patindex=patindex('%'+@separator+'%',substring(txt,@lastpos+1,101))
                        ,@patindex=case @patindex when 0 then @len-@lastpos+1 else @patindex END
                        ,@val=substring(txt,@lastpos,@patindex)
                        ,@curpos=@lastpos+@patindex+1
                  FROM @text
            
                  If @Val LIKE '_%;_%;[1-2][0-9][0-9][0-9]' AND @val not like '%;%;%;%'
                  BEGIN
                        Set @Ptr = charindex(';',@val)
                        Set @Make = Left(@Val, @Ptr - 1)
                        SET @Ptr2 = CHARINDEX(';', @val, @ptr + 1)
                        Set @Model = Substring(@Val, @Ptr+1, @Ptr2 - (@ptr + 1))
                        Set @Year = SUBSTRING(@val, @Ptr2 + 1, LEN(@Val))
                  
                        SET @NewID = 0

                        SELECT @NewID = MMYID
                        FROM MMY
                        WHERE Make = @Make
                              AND Model = @Model
                              AND mmy.Year = @Year

                        IF IsNull(@NewID, 0) = 0
                        BEGIN
                        
                              INSERT INTO MMY (Make, Model, Year)
                              VALUES (@Make, @Model, @Year)
                  
                        END
                        IF NOT EXISTS (SELECT * FROM #Product_MMY WHERE ProductID = @PID AND MMYID = @NewID)
                              INSERT INTO #Product_mmy (ProductID, MMYID, LastModificationdate)
                              VALUES (@PID, @NewID, @LMD)
                  
                  END
            END

            DELETE
            FROM @Text
      END
      ELSE
      BEGIN
            WHILE LEN(@WorkStr)>0
            BEGIN
                  Set @Ptr = CHARINDEX(@Separator, @WorkStr, @Ptr2)
                  IF @Ptr = 0
                  BEGIN
                        SET @Val = @WorkStr
                        SET @WorkStr = ''
                  END
                  ELSE
                  BEGIN
                        SET @Val = LEFT(@WorkStr, @ptr-1)
                        SET @WorkStr = SUBSTRING(@WorkStr, @Ptr+1, LEN(@WorkStr))
                  END
                  Set @Make = Left(@Val, @Ptr - 1)
                  SET @Ptr2 = CHARINDEX(';', @val, @ptr + 1)
                  Set @Model = Substring(@Val, @Ptr+1, @Ptr2 - (@ptr + 1))
                  Set @Year = SUBSTRING(@val, @Ptr2 + 1, LEN(@Val))
                  
                  SET @NewID = 0

                  SELECT @NewID = MMYID
                  FROM MMY
                  WHERE Make = @Make
                        AND Model = @Model
                        AND mmy.Year = @Year

                  IF IsNull(@NewID, 0) = 0
                  BEGIN
                        
                        INSERT INTO MMY (Make, Model, Year)
                        VALUES (@Make, @Model, @Year)
                  
                  END
                  IF NOT EXISTS (SELECT * FROM #Product_MMY WHERE ProductID = @PID AND MMYID = @NewID)
                        INSERT INTO #Product_mmy (ProductID, MMYID, LastModificationdate)
                        VALUES (@PID, @NewID, @LMD)
            END
      END
      
      FETCH NEXT FROM c_Parse INTO @PID, @LMD
END