well while its quite i decided to rig up a stepper control valve loom here indoors and get another stepper housing and do some playing,
I was correct the stepper is not working,
when you power the vems the stepper goes out (air way shut) and stays there,
did a bit of playing tonight and now when you power the vems up the stepper goes out then comes back to the open airway position
as per the 1.1.44 firmware,
i found that by turning power off stepper after steps function to disabled it burst into life
hope to pop round to the car tomorrow after work and see if she will idle unaided on 1.1.74 now