Hi all, i got a 97 suzuki savage and it was all good for awhile until one day i left the fuel valve on (im use to sport bikes) and now it wont start..... itll crank and all but just wont start...
it would back fire a few times though.......but i recharged the battery numerous times without luck......... do you think i need to change my plugs??  also how do i know how much oil i have inside my motor?  sigh... i know im such a noob at this but i didnt see any peek oil window and my oil pour plug doesnt have a dip stick so whats the deals?
any help would be appreciated thanks.!@

You're getting a "pop" now & then so that's good.

I can't tell you how many times I've kicked and kicked my XR for a half hour before checking the fuel level and finding an empty tank.  Happens to all of us.

Since you didn't see the oil level before, you might not know if it "made oil" since the last time - your fuel may have leaked out of the tank into the motor through the carb and/or fuel valve, not uncommon for an older bike with a vacuum petc0ck.  If that's the case, you have gas in the oil and need to change it.  Pull out the oil cover (top of case, right side) and sniffffff.  If it smells like gas, that's what happened.  Should fire up on Reserve, but don't run it long that way without changing oil.

If that's OK, then check some other stuff and give us the gouge on what you find.

How's choke effect it?  Better or worse (more or less pops)?  Have you tried several throttle positions (guessing you have).

Yank the plug and tell us what it looks like, we can go from there.  Congrats on the Savage, it's a fun little bike (when running).  I have a sportbike too.  Welcome to our forum.

Hey Greg, I actually did have a bad plug in my Savage when I first got it. It was my own fault, kept starting the bike in the middle of winter just to hear it run and never let it warm up. The plug ended up all fouled with carbon and was loosing spark because of it. Looking back on it the gas in the tank was old so there is a chance that it was stale and helped foul the plug.

Every time my Savage has failed to start, it has been one of three things, bad sparkplug, bad battery, or bad electrical connections (wires under the seat getting wet and shorting out).

Take a look at your plug for a good spark. Pull the plug, hook the lead back on, and with a pair of INSULATED pliers, hold the plug against the cylinder. Have someone pull in the clutch and hit the button.If the spark isn't BLUE, change the plug, or at the least, clean/regap/hit it again.

Check back if that isn't the problem. These bikes are also getting sort of notorious for fuel flow problems, so make sure the vacuum line off the fuel tap is connected, and in good shape. For that matter, change it and the fuelline out before you do anything else, a yearly change is cheap insurance.
-WD

When the fuel valve is working right, you can leave it on with no problem.  

If the little diaphragm on the motor side of the valve (petc0ck) starts leaking, then fuel will go thru the vacuum hose into the carb, filing up the airbox and/or crankcase with gasoline.  This happened with my Sav.