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General Category >> Rubber Side Down! >> Addision to Dave's, wniterizing the savage
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Message started by batman on 11/09/19 at 07:43:59

Title: Addision to Dave's, wniterizing the savage
Post by batman on 11/09/19 at 07:43:59

It would be best to completely drain the carb as the vent tubes from the bowl are open to atmosphere throughout the winter ,any fuel left in the bowl can absorb moisture during temperature swings and may freeze crushing the floats (ask me how I know). After 24 years this has happened only once this past spring ,but it was a wake up call for me .

Title: Re: Addision to Dave's, wniterizing the savage
Post by Gary_in_NJ on 11/09/19 at 09:54:01

The down-side to draining the carb is that the o-ring that seals the needle valve, as well as the float bowl gasket, can dry out, shrink or rot. I think it’s one of situations where you are darned if you do, darned if you don’t.

I use Star-Tron as a fuel stabilization treatment and have never had an issue with a spring start up. My bikes are also kept in a insulated garage that rarely sees temperatures below freezing.

Title: Re: Addision to Dave's, wniterizing the savage
Post by batman on 11/09/19 at 12:09:09

I'm still using my factory O-ring ($4.35) and gasket($7.94 ) but needed a new float ($20.45) Could have made the gasket , used a plain O-ring (temporary )until the new one came in, but had to order the float and wait , and cost nearly twice the cost of the other two parts . pick your poison , but if you do as Dave or I say the gasket and O-ring are exposed anyway , so is your O-ring as it is above the fuel level in the carb.

Title: Re: Addision to Dave's, wniterizing the savage
Post by Dave on 11/10/19 at 09:35:53

6C666268636A6E67393F3B0B0 wrote:

The down-side to draining the carb is that the o-ring that seals the needle valve, as well as the float bowl gasket, can dry out, shrink or rot.

I don' think it is the lack of fuel that can cause those things to occur - I believe it is more a function of where and how long the storage occurs. If the engine/carb is in a pole barn and it gets really hot in the summers the heat can be damaging to rubber parts.

Some of my lawn equipment is nearly 30 years old and still using the original needle,seat and carb gaskets....and the fuel is drained out every year.

It is my belief that "no fuel" when in storage results in a lot less work and more reliable equipment than leaving fuel in for 5 months of idleness.

Title: Re: Addision to Dave's, wniterizing the savage
Post by DragBikeMike on 11/10/19 at 15:06:46

You did a nice job on your post Dave. All the right details to ensure a trouble free startup next spring. I'm pretty sure many a Savage has met an early grave due to improper (or no) layup prior to the long winter. Then in spring, when the carb is full of tar, and the cylinder has a uniform coat of rust, and the fuel tank has a generous helping of water, and the battery is stone dead, all hell breaks loose when the owner scurries around trying to get his baby fired up for that long anticipated first ride. It was very nice of you to outline all the pertinent stuff for a proper layup.

Why can't I reply to your original post?

Title: Re: Addision to Dave's, wniterizing the savage
Post by batman on 11/10/19 at 18:28:38

He locked it ! thinking there was nothing to add ,he is after all a Licensed Engineer .

Title: Re: Addision to Dave's, wniterizing the savage
Post by SoC on 11/10/19 at 20:49:16

I go with the just try to ride at least once every 2 to 3 weeks. Here in central Jersey you get a nice sunny day, warm enough to head out and get about 20-30 miles in. I put it away by shutting petcock and letting it run until it just starts to stall. Drain the tank and when the weather looks good drop a gallon of gas in it and take quick ride.

Bikes are stored in a dry and semi-heated space, that is, the temperature in shop is never below 35-40 degrees, never below freezing and at least 4 days a week shop is heated up to 60 degrees while there working.

Lucky enough that here at the Jersey shore you occasionally get a day nice enough to ride regualrly all winter.

Title: Re: Addision to Dave's, wniterizing the savage
Post by Ed L. on 11/11/19 at 06:47:32

If you want to get some oil up into the float bowl to keep the O rings from drying out just shut off the pet c0ck, drain the bowl using the drain and then spray some WD 40 up into the drain hole using the skinny straw provided. It's a little messy, wrap the drain point with some shop rags, but it helps with the life of the O rings for winter storage.
Draining the tank then adding Sea Foam while running also seems to work.

Title: Re: Addision to Dave's, wniterizing the savage
Post by verslagen1 on 11/11/19 at 09:05:38

wd40 is a water dispersion spray with only 25% oil.

I would recommend instead fuel injector cleaner in the fuel.
And it remains in the carb afterwards.

Title: Re: Addision to Dave's, wniterizing the savage
Post by BrokeAss on 11/11/19 at 09:26:42

I build bobbers and cafes for a living, and flip bikes on the side, probably 50 or more units over the past few years, and a lot of my flips were bikes "running when I parked it" and in Spring "will crank but won't start now". Additionally, I have four personal motorcycles and four more belonging to my kids. For years I've just treated the fuel (SeaFoam or StarTron), run them for ten minutes, topped off the tank and took the battery indoors on a tender. Last year I decided to drain the bowls on my Ninja 500 and was surprised come Spring when the carbs leaked fuel like a sieve. There are o-rings on the pipe that connects the two carbs for fuel delivery and they'd shrank from lack of contact with petrol. I thought I'd have to tear into them but decided to leave the petcock on in the driveway and let it leak, see what happened. After a couple days it "healed" itself and we rode it all year no trouble.

My advice, for whatever it's worth...add a bottle of StarTron, fill the tank with premium, leave the petcock ON, and tender the battery in or out of the bike. If it's going to sit for a year or more, fog the cylinder and Saran Wrap the muffler opening. I don't advise draining the carb unless you want to deal with shrunken parts come Spring, if you've treated the fuel properly you won't have a bunch of gummy varnish but for good measure you can drain what's in the bowl just before trying to start it the first time.

YRMV...

Title: Re: Addision to Dave's, wniterizing the savage
Post by verslagen1 on 11/11/19 at 12:22:42

Who is Addison?

Title: Re: Addision to Dave's, wniterizing the savage
Post by DragBikeMike on 11/11/19 at 13:49:44

Do you mean "Addision"?

Title: Re: Addision to Dave's, wniterizing the savage
Post by verslagen1 on 11/11/19 at 14:21:42

10161965676064540 wrote:

Do you mean "Addision"?

Dam my eyes have gotten used to JOG's and MN's misspellings.

Addition and winterizing.

Title: Re: Addision to Dave's, wniterizing the savage
Post by batman on 11/11/19 at 16:56:52

I wish my typing skills were as fast as my spelling ,but my two fingers keep running into each other ! :)
I could go back and correct it ,but it turns out if you change the title of the post it disappears and you can't find it in a search . that's why when I told DBM to search for -tuning your intake - he was unable to find it.

Title: Re: Aduiytdision to Dave's, wniterizing the sava
Post by justin_o_guy2 on 11/11/19 at 21:45:10

My spellun is asgood as innybodeze.