B&S 44R877-0001 Surging (auto-choke)

I have a B&S 44R877-0001 that started surging out of the blue one day. I've replaced both park plugs, added a carburetor cleaner to the fuel. I mowed a few times hoping that it was just a gummed up carburetor but that hasn't helped. This model has a vane and temperature controlled lever that is supposed to engage and disengage the choke. It's almost like the spring that keeps the vane forward when the engine is off is too weak and the vane pushes back completely even at idle. Once the vane is pushed back the rpm drops and as the motor is about to die the air force on the vane drops enough that the choke disengages and the motor revs back up. This keeps repeating itself. If I manually hold the choke control arm up against the temperature actuated lever the idle evens out. I don't know why this is happening but I'm wondering if I can just remove the vane and bypass the auto-choke feature? Thanks to anyone that has advice!