The spring can be seen in the top image wrapped around the rod. It would make no sense to connect the spring the same way as the rod so one end must go somewhere else. It can also be seen in Fig 115 in the bottom image - ignore the red circle, that's not mine.

Don't worry about that spring

It connects to the throttle plate arm and is intended to take the slack out of that rod so the engine doesn't "jitter" as it runs. Do connect it, IF the end hook is broken off, simply bend a new hook end on it and re-hook.

Walt Conner

Thanks for the comments, mower is back up and running.