Posted by Richard Kurtz,FSSNOC#4368 (weatherbyguy) on March 20, 2003 at 03:13:39:
Folks -- just found this forum. Great! Been trying to communicate thru FSSNOC forum but apparently not many Savage riders in the organization. Let me tell you of the problem I have. It's lengthy but hopefully you will bear with me on my trouble.
Last wednesday, I took my second only ride on my new (used 96/yellow savage). MY first trip was to the wednesday thumper lunch. I just lazily rode to the destination at a relaxed speed of 50-55 and an occasional 60. I was just getting to know the bike and its handling characteristics. Relaxed, falling in love. Today however, my new love and I are having a spat. The sun was out, it was 73 degrees and the first really nice day since getting my bike about three weeks ago. The wind factor however was standard Kansas. STRONG! I thought I would take a short tankfull tour. Heading west out of "Little Sweden" Lindsborg, on state hwy 4, I decided to pick up the lazy pace somewhat and experiment with a little faster pace. WHAT THE... there was no faster pace. It seems the little savage completely ran out of steam at 60-64 mph. Granted I was pushing a side wind and there was a slight grade but throttle to the max 64.... For pete sake, a 125cc that my son had would do that.
Something's seriously wrong here. The bike came with a brand new SuperTrapp installed. I'm running 5 baffles. Sounds teriffic. Has gobs of low end power. Runs out thru the gears as good as my old Guzzi did but it hits a proverbial brick wall at 64. Solo touring actually would not bother me but riding with someone would be a disaster.I couldn't possibly keep up. THIS CANNOT BE STANDARD PERFORMANCE FOR THIS SIZE ENGINE!
By the way, I have tried adding and removing baffles to no avail. They do seem very sooty however. Any ideas, folks? I really would hate to get rid of it so soon!--Addendum to above---an important fact, I think, is that the SuperTrapp was on the bike when I got it. While I have played with adding and removing baffles, this process does not seem to have any effect on power, only the level of sound.
A local mechanic told me however, that adding baffles leans the fuel somewhat and reducing baffles enrichens fuel somewhat. With that in mind, I have reduced the number of baffles down to 4 gradually from the maximum of 8. My thinking was it just may not be getting enough fuel. Still.. no headway on getting more speed from the bike. Back to the mechanic for more insight. He suggested it sounded like it was not getting enough fuel.
Well, the savage site here is full of articles about the infamous little white spacer and that should enrichen the fuel but since I bought the bike used, I didn't know if it had ever been removed in the past or not. To make a long story much shorter, I decided to tear into it one rainy and otherwise miserable evening/day/evening/day. DANG! Someone ought to write up a step bystep on how to go about this process while balancing a half full tank on your lap with one hand while trying to undo the electrical connector with the other and then try to disconnect a stuck speedo cable while realizing the pliers you desperately need are on the bench top now three feet out of arms reach! Anyway, persistance pays and finally got it all off and the speedo opened up and apart, the slide out and... DOUBLEDANG, the white spacer is already out. Someone in the bikes past had already performed this enrichment fix. Now what? Back to the local mechanic for direction.
He suggested one last thing before bringing it to him for service, and that was to lower the circlip on the needle to raise it which would enriched the mixture. Sounded good...back to the garage...what!... the needle has only one grove and the clip is in it! SHUCKS!! Back together it all goes...hopefully. Great, only took half the time of taking it apart! Main problem still is the tank. Last bolt in and tightened down...now the moment of truth! Will it start...fuel reserve on prime, choke out and brrrrrrrrrrrrdaaaaadaaaaadaaaaa. All right! DANG! Still runs out of speed at 60+. Now what guys?
I'm no mechanic, that's why I got rid of my Guzzi. I prefer riding on them to workin' on 'em. Ideas please! Thanks for the interest - Richard (weatherbyguy).
In Reply to: no top end speed posted by Richard Kurtz,FSSNOC#4368 (weatherbyguy) on March 20, 2003 at 03:13:39:
When you removed the carburetor vacuum piston (slide) to check the white spacer, did you make sure that the piston and walls inside the carburetor were clean? My savage acts the same way when the carb is dirty. I remove the vacuum piston, clean it with carb cleaner, clean the walls inside the carb and the problem is solved. You also might want to check the main jet to see if the previous owner has messed with it. The stock main jet on my 1997 (US spec) is #145. I am using a #150 main jet and supertrapp with 8 discs installed.
Posted by Mika Jussilainen on May 16, 2003 at 08:47:52:
In Reply to: no top end speed posted by Richard Kurtz,FSSNOC#4368 (weatherbyguy) on March 20, 2003 at 03:13:39:
Seems like i have a same kinda problems with my 96 savage. Last summer top speed was 140 km/h but after winter i only 120 km/h and then motor suddenly choked for a second? Carb must be filthy or something. Bike was in garabe whole winter and i started it only once. White is spacer removed, stock exchaust drilled through, 150 mainjet, adjusted mixture but stock air cleaner (only snorkel removed). Some guys managed to get 160 km/h top speeds? Could my problem be with air cleaner? I try to change it to free air filter as soon as i figure how to fit it.
Posted by Richard fssnoc#4368Ks. on March 21, 2003 at 18:44:11:
In Reply to: no top end speed posted by Richard Kurtz,FSSNOC#4368 (weatherbyguy) on March 20, 2003 at 03:13:39:
Thanks Volley;ls650v;David K;Bob;and Paul for your thoughtfulness and insight into my problem. Now for the good news... I fired it up last night after getting it back together, took it for a short spin around my test loop and WOWEEEE what a difference. The low end was still strong as ever and it was still climbing past 70mph when I shifted from 4th into 5th. I shut it off when it passed 80mph and still climbing strong. Deer here in Kansas are thick at night so I didn't want to push my luck that late at nite and headed home, satisfied that the bike is now a keeper. Don't know yet what the top end speed is but at this point don't really care. For my needs and type of riding this is enough for me. Now... let me tell you what I did. As was suggested, I did everything you guys mentioned, so I cannot isolate which fix was the one but they all seem to work together well and neither takes a lot of time in and of itself. First, I checked the airbox to ensure that the filter was clean and it had no restriction(no mice);next I cleaned the carb slide with gumout spray carb and choke cleaner (the slide was black with what appeared to be baked on carbon). The inside of the carb seemed quite smooth and clean so I did nothing to it. After getting it back together from the top, I took my now well used 10mm wrench and removed the brass plug on the underside of the carb float bowl to drain the gas and with it any `carb critters' (I love that term) that may be residing therein. With the plug back in place, remember to prime the carb on start up because it's dry. Well, that's essentially the play by play. Again, guys....many thanks! As an addendum to this, my thought now is to put in a teaspoon full of gumout in every tankfull of gas to prevent the carb slide problem in the future. Couldn't hurt! Richard
