Ah, ok so not an OEM application. Yes, the stop is set so that it is partially open to let in enough air to let the M42 engine idle if the ECU or wiring have a problem.
You do not need to mess with the set screw if you will be manually controlling it. As you apply voltage, the door will first close, and then open again as the door continues to rotate with increasing voltage. In my ICV's case, it seems to be fully closed with 3-4V applied. The hard part is that it is not intended to be controlled by DC voltage, and I do not think that the positioning is very repeatable that way. It is driven by a 100Hz 12V square wave, and the duty cycle determines its position.
Anyway, you can certainly give it a try with a manual control. The ICV coil resistance is only around 8 Ohms, so you will need a pretty high power potentiometer.
If you are good with electronics, you can make a little circuit to control a transistor with a potentiometer. As long as you can supply up to 2A it could work.
A better solution would be to use the potentiometer to control a 555 timer's duty cycle with it running at ~100Hz (exact frequency is not all that important, it can probably be higher) and then the 555 output driving the transistor. Do note that the ICV will produce some inductive kickback when running it in a pulsed manner, so you want a transistor that can handle at least 50V, better 100V, on its collector.