Another thing... The bike is 8 years old not and only had 6800 miles when I bought it.  That means it has set a while.  I was considering pulling the carb and cleaning it to just to see what it looks like.  I have worked on cars both for fun and professionally but have never worked on bikes.  Do you have to have a carb kit to open it up and clean it.  I also live at 7000 feet and am wondering if I need to re-jet it since the air is so thin up here.  I'm in Flagstaff, AZ and 1200 feet Phoenix is only 2 hours from here but I know I will never take the bike out of this elevation so I won't have to worry about burning up the engine if I set it up for the elevation.  Any words of advice???  I'm anxious to get her running top notch all around!

If I was having your problem, I would march right down to the dealer and order a new petcock.  $60, 20 minutes, and you're back on the road.  I don't know how big a dent $60 would leave in your wallet, but it sounds to me like it would fix what ails you.  That's what I did, and haven't regretted it once.

Here..
http://suzukisavage.com/cgi-bin/YaBB.pl?board=tech;action=display;num=1113631600

It's right in the Table of Contents in the Tech Docs

I replaced the vacuum tube and still it persists.  I ran it on res and on and it died but when i run it on prime it runs fine.  so do you think the petcock mod will work? until i can buy a new one.

verslagen1 wrote on 08/07/08 at 11:31:24:


So,  I don't have a petcock assembly in hand and it's been a year since I did.....  Doesn't the PRI fuel path run thru the RES port in the tank???  Wouldn't the screen be clogged for both??  And,  the tiny screen on the carb by the float,  wouldn't that cause same issue in PRI too???

Sounds like a Vacuum issue, but why???   If the diaphram in the petcock was bad, I think the issue would be flooding not starving for fuel......  If you had a vac leak somewhere else then WOT would cause weak vac at the Petcock.

Here is a test to check for vacuum leak.  Start the bike. Then while idling, spray WD40 around the rubber intake manifold and the other misc spots on the carb (and Petcock?).  If the idle changes you found a leak.  Once fixed, buy some engine degreaser and clean up.  NOTE: You could use carb cleaner but that can damage some paints.    

EDIT: just remembered someone previously said to check all the tank & Carb vents.  The idea was that, at speed, the restricted vents would not allow fuel into the carb fast enough..... but I think that would also be one of the "would also be noticed in PRI"

leaky vac line

and someone said the diaphram can get hard.

Replacing it is VERY simple.  Some will say that there are other steps you might want to take.  If you want to swap it out, I'll walk you through it.