What is a linkage tour?
Cole,
It's only been a couple days, but any progress?.
Does the mechanic have your car, or do you have it?
The throttle linkage adjustment process is pretty straight forward to perform. No special tools or skills required from what I recall, other than patience.
The question about hot and cold idle speeds is a good one to help members understand the state of tune of your car.
Many US cars (not sure what the OP has) didn't even have the CSS hooked up (like mine).
However, it DID come w/that dashpot thingy (aka "Vacuum throttle control") that you must remove to do the Linkage Tour adjustment and put back on afterwards.
That dashpot thing raises the idle when you put it in gear.
I know I haven't been doing much work on my car lately so maybe forgot some terminology.
CSS = constant speed solenoid. It's engaged electronically when you put your car in gear (or turn on the A/C) and pushes on the throttle linkage to compensate for the load on the engine and avoid stall. You mention the "dashpot thingy" is vacuum controlled? What's the real name for what you're referring to here? Is it the device at the throttle intake butterfly flap?
