I have a 2003 Ranger reg cab 2.3 16 valve motor. The throttle is sticking in the idle position and you have to push a little to hard to get it to come off idle making it hard to make smooth take offs. I looked at this and the whole thing is plastic with the bottom half of the throttle plate being metal. An the sticking is in this piece not the cable. My question is does some one make a stock throttle body for this made out of metal (aluminium) so I can cure this problem. I have clean this area and it didn't help.

 

something like that might be covered by your warranty.

 

Bought used with 60000 on it no warranty

 

Have you tried spraying some kind of lubricant around the throttle plate so that it slides easily?
My parents had an Explorer that was like that (I think it was an '03). I think Ford fixed it under warranty though. I may be mistaken but I think there was some kind of recall on the Explorers for that as well.
You might want to look into that...
Octane