This brass looking plate was off with the spring sticking out...what does it do? I’m a decent shade tree mechanic but haven’t seen this yet. The boot is loose too

 

Cruise control bellows. Assuming it's plumbed in then that gap will be causing a massive vacuum leak!

 

Cruise bellows, not sure.it would.create a vac leak unless cruise was trying to engage, if vacuum was on bellows all the time it would be trying to open throttle all the time,
Anyhoo, its a good place to.start if you wamt to get your cruise working again

 

looks like it has been crushed, you might need the entire assembly, unless the photo is skewed.

 

I opened it up, it’s all in good order, just the brass plate was at an angle due to the worn out rubber bellows, the spring behind it was pushing it out. Ordered a new bellows cover. 😊👍🏻