I tackled my carb problem this weekend and I’m happy to say my efforts were a success. On Saturday I pulled the carb out, went down to my basement workbench and for the next 4-6 hours proceeded to meticulously disassemble and clean every individual piece.  When I pulled the main jet I found that the tip of the threaded end was broken off inside the carb. Luckily I had a 160 floating around, so I used that for the time being. I’ll ride with the 160 for a while and see how the bike likes it, if it seems like too much I will downsize to a 157.5. So I cleaned everything up, soaked all the jets in carb cleaner, did the white spacer mod, got the float level in the right spot and put it all back together. On Sunday I installed everything back into the bike, filled her up with some fresh gas and a carb cleaner fuel additive. She kicked over right away and once I adjusted the throttle valve/idle speed sustained a good steady idle. I took her for a quick spin and she seems to be running a lot better. I did notice there are still some pops and small backfires, and she still backfires on shutdown – but at least there is no cutting out/or shutting down on downshift and the throttle is operating much smoother. The only thing that still concerns me is that I can’t notice any difference in the idle when I adjust the idle mix screw. Could I be doing something wrong? Could this part of the Carb be faulty? Clockwise is to lean out the mix and counterclockwise is to richen it correct? When I put the carb back in, the screw was screwed all the way in, and I turned it out 3 full turns (counterclockwise) – should it be further out? I’d don’t mind the occasional backfire on shut down – actually I don’t mind them at all, it’s my neighbors who do when I roll in at 2am. So I’d like to eliminate them as much as possible.

Anyway, here are a couple of quick tips that stayed with me from this little weekend project…
1) Take your time. I’m one of those work fast, hurry up and get this done type of guys. Even though I’ve learned that this type of hasty behavior can lead to the worst results, I still do it. With this project I forced myself to slow down and found that not only did I do a better, more thorough job, but I felt more confident with my work.

2) Unless it’s tried and true for you, forget the shortcuts and do it the right way the first time. This is kind of like the above, but a little different. My personal example would concern removing and re-installing the carb from the frame. For whatever reason, the carb on my ’87 is insanely difficult to remove and re-install into the frame. I’m not sure if this is specific to this year of Savage, or just my Savage in general because I’ve removed the carb from my brothers ‘86 Savage and while it was tight, it was a lot easier to get it in and out.  The last time I took it out it took me 45 minutes to get it back in and that was with a lot of pushing, pulling and scraping – not the ideal way of doing it and very frustrating. So this time I decided to do it the long way  – I removed the battery and the battery box. Sure it took me an extra 10 minutes to take the battery out and 10 minutes to put it back in, but man – putting that carb back in was so easy. In the end, I probably saved time doing it this way because I didn’t have to wrestle with the cramped fitting. Now your carb may slide in and out easily – but my point is, even if it’s a little more work, do it the right way the first time as opposed to trying to cram, stuff, jam, force or muscle the job.

3) Keep the Clymer manual around you for reference – for the pictures if for nothing else. Just to being to reference a different, detailed view can be tremendously helpful. The original Suzuki shop manual is good too, but I find the Clymer is a bit better.

4) Enjoy tinkering. Working on your bike, fixing it, tinkering with it, experimenting with it and learning how it works makes you a better biker in general. Enjoy it and know that when you need it the most, that knowledge will be there to help you out.

So I’m back on the road after a week off and my bike is running much better than before. I have a few projects waiting in the wings to undertake. Some small ones for the summer (so that the bike never has to be down for longer than a day) and some major ones for the winter. Not sure what’s up next besides whatever minor tweaking I can do to the carb, but for right now I’m just going to enjoy the road.

Oh, and thanks to everyone on this board who helped me out tremendously with their knowledge and advice.

I have done about the same thing to my bike, an 87'. Mine has a 155 jet in it that came that way from the factory. Be real sure to check the fuel and vacuum lines that go from that tank to the carb. Mine both had hair-line cuts in them. If you work on the engine, be sure and check the valve settings. Have a good one,....Ray

3 turns from Factory settings or 3 turns from all the way turned in? As it is right now I have it 3 turns from all the way in as I didn't know what factory settings were. Either way, turning the idle mix has produced zero noticeable change in the idle of the bike - from all the way in, to almost all the way out. At least nothing that I’ve noticed – I’ll tighten it up a turn and a half tomorrow and see if I missed anything, otherwise, I’d have to move up from a 160 to a 162.5? I suppose that’s not unheard of a savage with a jardine and a k+n replacement filter.

Superray… Checking the valves is one of the next things on my to do list – I just have to read up on how that’s done. I know there are a couple of good threads on this board about it I haven’t gotten to yet.