Hello all, first post.  My wife and I have been on bikes for 4 yrs.  I have almost 20yrs of musclecar experience, so I'm handy around the cars, learning about the differences in bikes.

Here's the deal- 99 Savage, ~11k mi (only gets ridden about 500mi/yr right now-which may be part of the problem).  We bought it 4 yrs ago for my wife.  Most of the time it runs fine, with the usual lean condition (from what I've read).  Every once and awhile though, it acts as though the floats are stuck, or there's crap on the seat or something.  It will load up and die coming up to every stop or turn and will even load up down the road.  
There has been a time or 2 when the bowl to main body seam was wet, as though the fuel level was too high, but this is not always true.

The first 2 yrs it only happened a couple times and in the fall only.  Now it seems to be a crap shoot, hot or cold, humid or not, no real weather condition tied to whether it'll act up.

I have had limited success tapping the bowl/body with a hammer.  Like an old holley that's been turned upside down, sometimes this seems to help (if the floats were stuck or there was crap on the seat, this makes sense)

We had the dealer do the head gasket last summer due to an oil leak.  At that time I told them about all this and they inspected and 'cleaned up' the carb.  We took it back a week later with the same problem.  The second trip didn't fix it either.

Was reading on here yesterday about petcock issues, I will check the vac hose for gas.  Most of the stuff I've read here has not been such an intermittent problem for people though.  That's the frustrating part of this of course.  My wife has about 0% confidence in the back right now.

I do have the Clymer manual, so any references to that or ideas in general are welcome.
Thanks

I'm using a different carb now but when I was using the original Mikuni BS40 I had the same thing happen.  I found it was flooding.  I took the carb apart, cleaned it and reinstalled it.  After that it worked just fine.  If you determine it to be flooding, please check your oil as it could have become contaminated if this has occurred a lot.  I just changed my oil for peace of mind.

I never did determine definitively what, specifically, was sticking.  I couldn't see anything sticking when I inspected it, so I just did a thorough cleaning.

A couple of thoughts for you.

1. Make sure the choke (enricher is fully shut off when this is happening)
2. If you pull the carb to work on it maker sure:
   A. choke plunger seat is clean and plunger face looks good
   B.  does the slide move freely up and down.  More on this later.
   C.  remove the needle valve and seat and make sure it is spotless.
   D.  make sure the float doesn't have any liquid in it.
   E.  Make sure the float moves freely


Here is where I am at.  A choke circuit left partway open will make it rich.  Liquid at the manifold sounds like an overflow situation which would point to the needle valve or float.  I have had everything (on other bikes) from debris in the needle vavle, stuck floats from sitting dry, to floats that wouldn't come up due to hitting the float bowl side wall, to actually sinking a float once...that was a scary ride home conisidering I was coming through the hood.

Also, with regards to the slide.  if that is gummed up it will stay up when the butterfly closes and so your needle jet is not operating in sync with butterfly/airflow.

Lastly, today's gas is terrible for intermittant riders.  If you are having trouble with gas related issues, see if you can find a station that has a pump reserved for offroad, small engines, collector cars, and motorcycles.  The gas lacks many of the offending additives that gum up carburators in a matter of weeks (for those that aren't used)

Also, other than the wet joint are you sure it is rich and not a lean condition due to the pilot jet being plugged from low use?  My bikes often suffer from that with today's gas and my limited time to ride.

good luck.

When it acts up, it's definitely rich.  Have to hold it WOT to start, belches black, trying the choke makes it worse, etc.

When it's running right, cruising down the road at temp, if you pull the choke out to the first notch the bike actually picks up steam and stops the lean surge that it seems to have come standard with.

So, in general, the main circuit is too lean when it runs correctly (not a big concern and certainly 2nd priority here).  When it's acting up, idle and main circuits are too rich, as it will load up and die at idle and load up and chug down the road.  WOT works fine as you would expect.


S_B: I'm with you on checking all the various parts of the carb save the 'slider'.  What does that refer to?

I don't know of any pumps to get that kind of gas in Chicago.  There is a place that sells 100 octane unleaded that may have a different additive package, but that octane would cause more trouble I'd think.

I have read other places that infrequent riding of these bikes is particularly hard on the fuel system, is that true?  With the vac operated petcock, if I leave the petcock in the normal position, I can drain the bowl and be fine-and then switch to prime to refill before riding again?  About how much time does it take for it to fill?

Thanks for the ideas so far.

here's some doc/pics on that carb

http://suzukisavage.com/cgi-bin/YaBB.pl?num=1098869040

yes - needle (metering rod) hangs out of the bottom of the slider - it has a rubber diaphram on the top - it is vacuum operated -

ok, the tube the diaphram is attached to = slider.

Is there a handy link for a cheap gasket kit for this carb?  I'm guessing the shop didn't grease the gaskets, so they'll probably tear when I take it apart.