Champion 196 Throttle Linkage
 

Hey guys, I could use some help. I just picked up a little buggy with a Champion 196. It was running kinda rough (the carb is basically new) so I messed with the idle jet and the mixture jet. I got it to smooth out a bit but it was still having issues. So I pulled everything apart down to the carb and found a large hole in the plastic shroud of the air cleaner (so the dust was going straight into the carb). Pulled the plug and there was oil and dirt on the electrodes. So, I cleaned everything up, put some RTV on the air cleaner and put it all back together. Now the engine runs but the idle has got to be 1/2 to 2/3 WOT. It’s so high that the throwout clutch never disengages. I can manually operate the butterfly valve on the carb and it’ll throttle down but for whatever reason, the butterfly gets pulled open pretty far by the spring and never returns to the idle setting. When I pull back and forth on the throttle assembly (that’s what I think the part is called - the actuating lever that controls the butterfly on the carb).
I’m wondering if it has something to do with the round piece that has the small claw on it on top of the throttle assembly (first pic next to my finger). So yeah, the new issue is totally my fault… I just don’t know what I screwed up… :\

Here are some pics of the throttle assembly. What am I missing? If y’all need any other pics, I’d be happy to oblige.

Thank you for any insight …