So I just picked up a sweet 1986 Savage with a salvage title.  I took it around a bit and it seems to drive great.

The problem is when I slow down and/or come to a stop.  The bike's idle is very erratic and most of the time it will just quit.  When I parked it in my driveway after a successful ride, I noticed gas dripping from one of the lines under the airbox.  There seemed to be caps on those tube so I took the one off that had the drops of gas and it started to form more dropplets.

I thought it was a bad float valve (since with all of my other bikes, dripping gas at the bottom meant overflowing bowls.   I took the carb off and apart and dipped it in parts cleaner.  Reassembled it (without adjusting the float level) and put it back on.  The bike did start and run but the idle/stalling issue was even worse.

What are those two hoses from?  Why would there be gas coming out of it?  They look like the bottom of the airbox.  If that's so how the heck is gas getting from the carb to the airbox??

You help is appreciated!  I want to get this taken care of tomorrow.

carb's overflowing back into the airbox.

Probably already filled your crankcase.  If the oil window is any color except oil or black, you're going to have to change the oil and filter after you do all of these things.

Replace the vacuum line to the petc0ck.  Check for overflow.  Check the float needle for dimpling, and check the o-ring around the float needle valve to make sure it is fat and sealing.  Check that the float floats, as well.

I cannot stress that o-ring enough.  It took me, no kidding, 3 months to realize that it was so buggered up.

toddlamp8 wrote on 12/31/69 at 16:00:07:


Test that they float in water.  Then lay them on a known flat surface that is backlit and look to see if there is light coming from under the bar that the pivot pin goes through.  If one float is higher than the other, it can cause the float needle to bind.  

The vacuum hose is whatever the guy at the auto parts store hands you after he looks at the hose you took him

If your bike is stalling because of the flooding issue, the repairs mentioned should take care of that as well.

toddlamp8 wrote on 12/31/69 at 16:00:07:



How far apart did you take it?  sounds like you may have knocked a plug of gunk that was making it idle poorly into a place where it's making it idle badly.

Also, is it running rich or lean?  Could be the choke's out.

Also, try setting your idle up to the point where you think it's retardedly fast.  That helps a lot of issues.

Dirty spark plug?

I didn't take the jets out when I took it apart and soaked it so i'm going to take it off again.

The bike is a salvage so I don't know exactly where all the parts come from.  I know that Suzuki changed jets mid way through production.  The frame is from an 86 but the carb could be from anything.  How do I tell what jet and pilot screw I have?  Is it imprinted on them?  Also, what is the proper pilot screw adjustment?  How many turns out?

Thank you.

Any gas-safe o-ring assortment will have one that is appropriate for that.  I got mine at O'Reilly's auto parts.  Autozone, Advance, and Napa should have the same sort of assortment, if not the single o-ring.  Take the faulty valve body with o-ring in and compare.

I stress gas-safe because there are a lotta o-rings really cheap that are NOT gas-safe and will melt when exposed to gasoline.