No. with the plunger removed the rack moves freely against spring pressure, but does not move in conjunction with the throttle. When you reinsert the plunger, the rack does not move at all, as if it were stuck again. When I found the spring broke on the plunger, I bought a used plunger with spring, soaked it in diesel for a few days and replaced the whole assembly. It still acts the same on either plunger, the gear that mates to the rack does not seem to move at all and wont let the rack move.
On page 112 of the manual attached to my original post it looks like there is a connecting