The idol on my 40 hp johnson is screwed up BAD. We started it for the first time and it idoled at freakin full throttle. we tried to tighten and loosen the idol screw but it didn't help. can anyone help me.

is it stick steer?

Take the air silencer off (if it has one) and disconnect the throttle cable from motor.  Push the throttle lever on the side of the motor all the way to the stop to and make sure the butterflies in the carbs are fully closed.   Make sure the little piece of linkage at the top of the throttle rod going to the timing plate has not jumped out, then make sure the timing plate is going all the way back with the throttle linkage and not binding/sticking before it fully retards.

I guess I should have asked, did it just start doing this on it's own or did it start this when it was put back together from some other work that was done, like taking the carbs off to clean them?