Idle air control repair.

Ok heres the deal ....96 cherokee sport idles low and dies ... every time .... runs fine when on the gas but when I let off the gas .... like to stop or slow ... rpms drop and it dies. Been feathering the gas to keep rpms up all week, now its time to fix it!
Anyways I removed the Idle air control thing last night and cleaned it...and here is my question .... I unscrewed the plunger thing and pulled off that , the sleave and spring to clean all ... and screwed it all back together and threw it back in the jeep.
Same thing no idle and it dies.
Should I have NOT taken the Idle air control thing apart?
Does the plunger get screwed in only a certain amount?

Also thinking back ... after I reassembled it the plunger didn't seem to be able to move.
Hehehehe did I screw it up or what?

Should have left it alone, at this point, based on your description of the problem. Dirty AIC's and throttle bodies normally result in high idle. Not sure if removing the plunger is certain death. I would think it's depth needs to be calibrated, however, so not sure you can re-calibrate its movement with the ECM's output commands; you probably need the dealer's AIC test set.
You should put an LED-type voltage lamp accross each of the two sets of control wires in the connector; if you see blinking light, it tells you the ECM is sending signals to the AIC. One set is for "extend", and one set is for "retract". The assumption would be the ECM and associated wiring are good; that would imply the AIC is bad. Since you already removed the plunger, it probably wouldn't do any more damage to remove the AIC, block off the idle port, and see if the ECM will cause the plunger to move. Generally you shouldn't do this, because the ECM will over extend the plunger.

Replace T.P.S Sensor / Remove Throttle Body & Clean it...

I'm feeling relieved and a bit stupid at the same time....
first off thanks for the replies
The fix was easy ....
disconected the battery before unplugging the connectors and what did I find????? .... the ENTIRE positive battery post/terminal came out of the battery ... all of it ... suprised it even ran.
New battery and all is good.
I guess I lucked out on how I put the IAC back together .
Thanks again for the replies