Hello all.  I'm new to the forum, and have been diligently reading the previous posts.  What a wealth of information!.  Without the Savage-specific knowledge and experience I've found here, I'd have spent beacoup bucks unnecessarily.  I'm going through all the old posts, but am impatient to find one particular answer in the mix...  I recently bought my first Savage, a BEAUTIFUL '87 with 3600 miles on it.  It was actually owned by a little old lady, who kept it in a garage all its life.  New tires and battery.  I gave $1500 for it.  As a result of its sitting so much, the carb is giving me fits.  If I run the fuel selector in the "on" setting, fuel spills out from the top of the carb and gets me all stinky.  In the "reserve" setting, everything is dandy except for a little black smoke at startup.  Also, my mileage is REALLY lousy.I suspect float trouble.  

My question is this:  Is there some mechanism to retain the needle and other goodies if I remove the bowl with the carb (stock Mikuni) still installed?  Or will the float drop far enough to let those little pieces and parts fall out?  I'm currently commuting daily on the bike, and would rather not dismantle the whole bike right now, especially until I finish perusing the posts on this site.  With my luck, page 186 has a post saying "don't take the bowl off an '87, whatever you do!"


I am runnig Seafoam and two stroke oil in the gas, pursuant to advice you folks have offered others in the past, but am not sure whether that will address a sticky needle or not.

Sorry to ask ANOTHER carb question, but I just gotta know, so I can decide how and when to address this.  Thanks in advance for any help.

Gotta agree,that pesky varnish is all through the carb.Look in the tech section about 5-6 months ago Savagewahine did her carb,and there are great pics,and step by step.Carbs aren't that hard,just becareful with parts some are fragile,and soke are tiny.

Here's what I'd do...
http://suzukisavage.com/cgi-bin/YaBB.pl?board=tech;action=display;num=1191899985

second, check out that petcock, it sounds like it's acting up too.  
Reserve should be no different than "on", check for gas in the  vacuum line too.  And replace it anyway.

The fuel line should be replaced too.  Old rubber is no good.

Aside from the carb needing a proper cleaning - you can pull the bowl easy enough - a little tight against the battery box but you can push the top of it back enough to do so - the hard part is if the stock soft phillips head screws are still in place they can be a real pita to break loose the first time - you need to put a lot of pressure on a very good phillips bit to keep from stripping them out or you’ll be playing with a drill and easyout to remove them – and throw these in the trash – replace with stainless allen head screws on the bowl and the diaphragm/slide cover as well  

m5x10mm for the top plate and m5x15mm for the bowl in stainless allen head is what I used