Thanks everyone for the suggestions. And previors thanks, "axially" was the word I was looking for in trying to describe the movement of the butterfly. I believe that I'm going to have to go back to the drawing board on my entire throttle setup. I want the carb mounted to the engine as it is now so that I can access the needles without worrying about getting in the prop. It made adjustment a breeze. I'm just going to have to come up with a way to route the throttle control rod through the lower corner of the firewall in more of a straight line so I can use the plastic rod. It's going to take some real Rube Goldberg engineering.

In the short time it ran, something must have happened to the carb, maybe as Previors said. For it to have ran and the throttle work so smooth, and all of a sudden just go to h#ll, something must have happened to the carb.

I'll first remove the little plate and spring and see if it drags. If so, I'll remove the butterfly plate and the shaft to see why it's dragging.