Rotating coil on divorce choke thermostat?

[hr2pilot]

New to this great forum!  So much great information!

My question concerns the coil element on a divorce choke thermostat on my 1990 5.7 L Mercruiser Q-jet (17080561).

Removing the cover of the thermostat, one sees the coil element which is attached at it's center to an axle sitting in the heavier metal housing, which is bolted to the intake manifold.

Upon inspecting mine closely,  I notice that the axle is loose and rotates in the holder.  (wish I could post a picture....worth a thousand words).  Is this normal?  I can't see the coil working accurately if it rotates loosely in it's housing. I'm feeling I should peen down the axle so it doesn't rotate, after I set the carb up on the manifold after rebuild....right?

 Anyone ever encounter this?

[hr2pilot]

Here's a picture

[hr2pilot]

And another after the coil spins on the axle:

[Cliff Ruggles]

The pin should remain stationary far as I know.  It couldn't work correctly if the pin moves with the spring, or one wouldn't think so.  I have some new coils in the shop, I'll check one tomorrow to see how it behaves....Cliff

[LouC]

I have on on my '88 4.3 (Marine version, OMC Cobra). The spring appears to be staked in place (I replaced the spring after about 25 years of use) so it should not be moving.

BTW, the one problem I had with this choke was that it would not always close all the way, I cured that with a really good cleaning of the choke linkage. Since we don't drive carb'ed cars anymore sometimes you forget that this was a part of the yearly tune up back in the day....