Stupid Noob tricks: Have I destroyed my engine?

[slmndr13]

Finally got a look....holy cow, the spring looked like a corkscrew and obviously did very little to return the slider to its home position. 

I put the spring back in alignment and worked the slider back and forth while applying liberal doses of carb cleaner as it seemed a tiny bit sticky.  I'm going to want to replace the spring as it seems a bit inadequate for the task at hand.  Not enough pressure.

I also wound up monkeying with the idle after warming up the bike.  It was a bit rough at 1200 RPMs and would drop lower and stall when I stopped sometimes.  I upped it to 1500 for now, but even there it seems to flirt with stalling once in a while.  I'm going to be looking into what would make this sort of thing happen, but as far as I'm concerned, the problem that caused me to start this thread has been solved.  Thanks everyone.

PS I haven't ruled out the value of a good carb cleaning and other suggested items.  I just wanted to know what caused my original problem before taking those steps.

[jeremy_nash]

make sure you spray some lubricant in the cable, cause carb cleaner will dissolve any lubricant that was still on the cable