The throttle body was pretty dirty, so I decided to clean it on a whim before it went back into the car. Nothing was particularly wrong with it, I just wanted to clean it up. So some water, simple green, brushes, and a lot of time later, I scrubbed off the grime and some of the carbon, but then it started sticking open. And would take a lot of force to close. Intermittently, throttle body cleaner will get it to move smoothly, but then it'll stick open again. Any ideas on what to do?

 

well it IS leaning on the linkage lol

but in all seriousness, all the cleaning you did may of moved some carbon gunk inside. spray the inside of the throttle shafts with some penetrating oil (PB etc) and work them, do the same with the springs on the outside, then after you have them moving freely, clean them with ether or TB cleaner, if that doesn't work, take the shafts out and clean them with a green scouring pad

 

had same prob with my TB couple months ago. did pretty much same as you did, scrubbed and cleaned and scrubbed and cleaned.
Then like a week later it started again, so pulled TB and cleaned with I think carb cleaner and parts cleaner.
Then sprayed all moving parts with PB blast and/or WD40 and worked the TB linkage by hand dozens and dozens of times until everything moved smooth.
I then cleaned all again with cleaning spray to get any dirt bits or whatever out of it, hit it with compressed air.
Finally sprayed all moving parts on the outside of the TB with some Liquid wrench white lithium spray and worked that into moving parts, wiped off excess with a rag.

Seems to working so far, thought the TB shaft was bent or butterfly's were dragging but could never find anything to cause the "sticking" problem so just clean it and work the butterfly's back and for until I was satisfied with its movement.

 

You may have cleaned it but I didn't hear you say that you Lubriucated the moving parts of it.
YOu may expext osme sticking if you put Water/cleaner to it,so go bacak and Hit it REAL good with a Penetrating lube,especially around the throttle shafts,and use a light grease on the springs.
Work the throttle body Open and closed to get the lubrication going..
THEN try it.

I had my TII stick open at 6500..driving into the Park..
..Yay!....(needless to say,I cleaned the TB...and my colon..lol!)

 

My "sticking" problem was the OMP shaft.

 

There aren't any rebuild kits , huh? I would really like to disassemble and put new seals in it if possible

 

Its mostly likely your springs. Like im 80% sure cause this happened to me. the springs have rust have stick spray with wd-40 and they wont stick.