You need to eat more red meat... ...

Naw,.. the stock mechanism is famous for getting sticky, if you don't turn it very often...  
... on the good side, it'll wear out faster if you do...

That's not a real good side... but it's the only one it's got... ...

They are also famous for going bad...  many people switch to a petcock off of a manual Yamaha 660 Raptor...one third the cost, and smoother mechanism...

I'm going to have to switch the petcock valve to reserve more often for sure

ziggy wrote on 09/07/11 at 19:15:55:

That will probably cure the problem.
As you have noticed, petcock paranoia has set in for several of the oletimers here. They will blame everything but the kitchen sink on to the vacuum operated petcock, when in reality they seldom give a problem in their 10-20 yr lifespan.

you can learn from the experience of others,... or learn from your own....
Either way,...  You learn... Wink...


Ive learned that..

I learned real quick. No fun having the bike basically shut down on you at 70 mph on the interstate in the middle lane at 6pm traffic. Did it to me 4 times before I finally did the petcock test. I ordered the Raptor 660 petcock the very next day. That's why I made a How-To video in the tech section for us noobs.

It's unfortunate Suzuki refuses to acknowledge this, along with the cam chain tensioner as a problem/malfunction on their bikes. It's been this way since the first Savage rolled off the assembly line in the 1980s. I just hope these issues don't hurt or end up leaving too many folks stranded.


Ian

Well, I'll spell it out for you oldtimers,......OP will know more about it also,.....
We were speaking of the Petcock "itself". I haven't seen any evidence of the petcock "itself" giving any problem (like diaphram rupture) in less than a 10 yr old bike,....and I'll even go 15 yrs on that now,.....and not to say that it couldn't happen.

No matter what you guys try to get new members to believe, the truth is,.....most all times that a "hi speed" lack of fuel problem comes up, it is a lack of vacuum supplied to the petcock, whether it be a bad vacuum hose, clamps, or a lack of vacuum supplied by the engine itself.
And of course,.......doing away w/ an automated saftey device,.......changing to a manual shut off style petcock, is going to eliminate any of those potential problems that very likely will not come in the first 5-10 yrs.

Why don't you guys admit that when a carb is flooding,.....fuel running out the air intake, that 99% of the time it is the float valve, not the petcock ??!

The problem here is that w/ the "petcock paranoia" you guys got going here, is that every little fuel problem that come up gets blamed on to the petcock, and causes an unnecessary change out that seldom fixes the problem.
It just seems like you guys would be smart enough to know that if the petcock was even 1/4 the problem that you guys pretend it to be, it would have been replaced by Suzy many.....20+ ?? yrs ago.

The newbys can believe what they want to, but they deserve to know the truth......from reading 3 years of this forum,....and other research also does not support what is posted here.

Me, I'm headed fishing !

Routy,

I will completely agree that most of the petcock issues cluster around low vacuum levels, which can occur on all Savages as they go full open throttle and approach higher speeds.

I will also freely admit that all the modders and wickers (myself included) have aggravated these low vacuum issues by taking out the stock (restrictive) Suzuki air filter.   We are also asking for more gas volume at all speeds to feed our more powerful engines (and that is at these reduced intake restriction removed vacuum levels).

I completely agree that the stock vac petcock offers a variable gas flow that is in proportion to the amount of suction that the vac line sees (and I completely agree that the vac line is the first failure item to go too).

I will also freely admit that the putt putt around moderately and leave the bike completely stock crowd may never have an issue with the stock vac petcock until they get a whole lot of years on it and the diaphragm stiffens on them.   Until then, the putt putt boys may never exceed the variable gas flow the petcock will provide.

I don't debate the splitting diaphragm thing as I have never had one go on me personally -- I'll leave that one for Serobot and Verslagen and the boys who have had one go dump fuel down the vac tube into the airbox and sump.  

Give you a clue though, Verslagen thinks fuel washing down the cylinder walls is a engine damage mode that he is willing to discuss as a serious possible failure mode ....

So, you got a stock vac petcock that cannot operate on the intake vacuum levels that exist on mebbe half the bikes on the list?   And vac suction line rubber tubes that fail pretty wide spread in the 5-7 year time frame?  

You see, it really doesn't matter to me about the semantics about whether it is a "vacuum level problem" or "vacuum petcock problem" -- it is still a stinkin' problem that needs addressing.

Since you want to address it as a "vacuum level issue" then what solution do you propose to increase our vacuum levels at high speeds?




Routy, I am soooooo much more fun to play with than Bill is with his Klotz and his Seafoam -- I can type really long sentences and I actually try to respond to what you say.

(what you say makes good sense BTW and prompts better thinking on my part on the issues at hand).    

Catch you a nice fish or two for me, and drink you a couple of nice cold beers while you are out there on the lake.