Hi all,

I'm a newly minted Savage owner ('96 model) and a newbie to this forum, but the info on here has been an education; I'm glad I found this community.  You know the bike is awesome .

Unfortunately I've run into a kind of mechanical problem in my first 48 hrs of ownership and wanted to run it by the forum to see if anyone's ever dealt with this before...

I picked up the bike on Friday and everything was great until early Sunday on the way to the hardware store.  I had just filled up the tank with regular 87 octane and was on my way home when I hit a big bump in the road—one of those metal plates they put down in construction zones…and everything was fine until I came to a stop at the next stoplight…the engine just died when I rolled off the throttle completely and put it in neutral.

I pulled over and tried to start the bike up again but I couldn’t get the engine going unless I gave it some gas.  As soon as I stop giving it gas it just sputters out—it won’t idle.  I’m thinking the bump may have knocked the pilot jet or the idle screw out of whack, or I overfilled the gas tank and flooded something--a freind of mine thinks the bump may have churned up some sediment from the fuel tank and clogged the carburetter…not sure but I'm not in a position to take the bike apart myself..Is the solution staring me in the face?  I called a mechanic and will have it brought to the garage for a diagnostic, unless you think it's a quick fix...

The bike was running great until I hit that big bump...I had also just filled it up with gas for the first time--has to be related to one or both right?


Thanks!

It sounds dumb, but make sure you have enough oil. When I first got my savage, very first got, I was unaware of the plug leak issue or it severity. Didnt keep an eye on the oil well enough I geuss. I checked once a week no matter what. Turns out one evening i was low on oil and it kept dieing out on me so i just upped the idle speed and kept on my way home. The next day was my weekly check...boy was i low on oil. Filled it up, started it up and what was a nice idle the night before was sky high after topping off. Yes...i couldve done serious damage. Luckily I didnt.

serowbot where are you?

verslagen1 wrote on 05/09/11 at 20:39:01:

Oh!... me?... Ahhem!...

Well, I wasn't originally thinking petcock,... but,..  The symptoms can be so bizarre, you really never know until you check it...
So,... do check it, it's easy and quick, and definitive...

How to check your petcock,...

It does sound like something has caused you to be rich, but only intermittently...  Petcock problems do start out intermittent, and grow increasingly over time...
So, do the test, and either you'll fix it, or be able to rule it out before messing up a lot of other things in a futile hunt...
Best of luck, and get back to us with the results... ...  

Whatever it is,.. I don't think it's related to the bump in the road...
If not the petcock,.. I'd think it more likely related to the fuel stop...
Dirty gas,... diesel in the tank,... or clogged tank vent,... but,.. they would make your engine starve, and I think you're getting too much fuel... So,...
Test that petcock!... That beasty has sent hundreds here around the bend before they figured it out...(including me)...

Serowbot,...
The Petcock Nazi....  

To answer all your questions, yep!  

Use the search function and don't forget to change the range to all posts.  I also only show one result from each thread, but that is just me.