Hello LS650 World,

I am a newbie with a 1998 stock Savage with about 6700 miles on the clock. I bought it from a person who thought she wanted to ride, but then she found other things to do. This thing sat in a garage for about 7 of its 10 year history, logged only 4,000 miles. I have been bracing myself for bike rot failures (bad gas, rust, scary spiders crawling from handgrips, etc).  So far, no sign of rot, maybe I got lucky, but I should replace the tires this winter.

My first Savage wrench merit badge goes to pulling the brass plug from the carb. Done! The symptoms I'm treating are "Wont stay running in cold weather (below 50f)". I've owned carburated VWs in the past and this is sounding like lean idle mix. The Savage even sounds like an old VW. The heater on the Savage is much better than the VW  

I was concerned about drilling too far when pulling the plug, but I managed to not screw it up. I also bought a new micrometer this year, so I measured the plug: it's  5/32" thick and about 1/4" diameter. Now to find a rubber plug to protect the idle screw. I've been measuring every thing since I bought the Micrometer. My wife shakes her head: "Do you have to measure the diamond on my ring again?".... Measure twice...

I don't own one of those fancy slide hammer thingies, so I improvised by winding a threaded "hook & eye" in to the newly drilled hole in the plug. Then I attached some dental floss to the eye. The Fourth Stooge in me got this idea that it would be cute to tie the other end of the floss to a door knob and then slam it shut, but I just wrapped it around my screwdriver and gave it about six tugs. No more plug! Where did it go? Down in to the starter well, that's where! Fortunately, the  strength of single strand of dental floss can support about 4,000 lbs, so I gave it a few more yanks and it came out of the starter well. Always keep dental floss in your toolkit! I betcha I could weave a new drive belt with it if I had tah!

I turned the screw in, out, re-adjusted the idle speed thumb screw. Turned the mixture screw in and out again. You're probably going to ask "How many turns?" - well that's a mystery, even to me. HOW CAN SOMEONE COUNT WHEN THEIR FINGERS ARE WRAPPED AROUND A BEER?!? Somewheres around three(ish). The idle sounds good, and it don't die when I let the throttle snap off. I'm ready to test!

Normally in Chicago I could count on cold conditions the week of Thanksgiving; that was until Congress screwed everything up by moving it up a week! It's a little over 55f and the bike is running smooth. The backfiring on deceleration has been replaced with a more manly grumble when I roll off.  I'll take another R&D ride next week (real Thanksgiving week) and get signoff on my handy work when it's about 40f outside.

Next merit badge: The 6,000 mile Savage Maintenance - Yes, that's right, I'll be replacing the blasted plug on the cyclinder head cuz my bike is bleading oil. I ordered the parts, and will be knocking that out in a week or so.

Micrometers rule - calipers drule!

That mixture screw is sposed to be adjusted while it's at operating temp, idling. Out till it starts to drop rpm,, very, very S  L  O  W  L  Y  do this.. then back in till it starts to drop RPM,, same sloowww, sloww, stuff, then back to middle of the 2 points where rpm started to drop. You may be forced to set the beer down. I did mine at red lights, Several red lights, before I was satisfied.

justin_o_guy2 wrote on 12/31/69 at 16:00:11:


Yup - I was pulling in to peoples driveways to do this adjustment. I pull out my screwdriver, lay my head on the tank, and then turn the mixture screw and idle adjustment till I got the engine sound I want. (Tachometers are for babies!).

It is very much like setting up a guitar amp - gain up, volume down - sounds good? Showtime!

Where to put the beer? - hmmm - that useless speedo is taking up quality space in the gas tank - rip that out and wedge a beer can in there - if the can is too loose  try bigger can

1st2know wrote on 12/31/69 at 16:00:11:

Looks pretty close to the size of a Fosters oilcan.

Back to the topic title...

If you want to adjust the mixture without "screwing up" then:

- Make sure that you don't tighten it down too much.  Just gently bottom the screw because you can break the tip or damage the seat...

- Don't lose the small spring, gasket or washer if you remove the screw completely

That's my kind of sense of humor  

As long as the hose is in good shape, it does sound like a petc0ck problem.  The nipple on the carb is a no brainer unless a mud dauber made a nest in it

I hope you find the petc0ck spring because if you put it back together, attach hose, and suck on hose you can find out if petc0ck works properly.

No magic to it and you don't even have to collapse a lung.