If you dont have a charger, get one, & if you go into the battery, now is a good time to put a pigtail on it so you can plug in a float charger. If you can solder, you can get a coupla Phono jacks from Radio shack & build up a simple plug in setup for the float charger,
You mite just need to add water & charge it.

martinfilms34 wrote on 06/22/12 at 12:25:39:


It maybe you decomp is out of adjustment.
If it clicks once, that's the decomp activating.
Secound click is the starter relay.
if the decomp is out of adjustment and it's on the compression stroke, the starter will just stall.
Multiple clicks after that is the starter relay droping out cause of low voltage and re-engaging when the battery recovers.

martinfilms34 wrote on 06/22/12 at 14:05:54:

Unless there's a short somewhere... you gotta bad battery.

I can only stress one thing, get an AGM battery like the Big Crank. Checking the electrolyte level in a lead acid battery twice a year is nothing more than a great big PITA !!

If you can jump start from another battery (car or truck), then it's the battery for sure.   You can ground the neg side of jumper anywhere on the frame or motor, but the pos side needs to contact either the +bat terminal or the battery side of the starter solenoid to make sure the ignition and decomp circuits work as normal.  BE CAREFUL, if the pos jumper lead hits ground it shorts out both batteries!

Another possibly safer route is to disconnect the bike battery's leads (neg first), then clip the alligator leads right onto the terminal leads; essentially replacing the bike battery.   Again, make sure the pos lead doesn't vibrate around after starting and hit ground at anytime, or you'll have an early 4th of july.

Best bet is shop around for a cheap battery. Dont know if your in the US or Canada.  Here in Canada the cheapest is Walmart.  I just bought My Savage but from my previous bikes if seen batteries usually last for 2 maybe 3 years so no need to go crazy and buy an expensive top of the line battery.

thats just my 2 cents

1999savage wrote on 06/23/12 at 13:01:56:

And 3 guesses why they last only 2-3 yrs.
It isn't hard to make any battery last 6-8 even 10 yrs. The secret is to keep it watered, and to keep it as fully charged as possible at all times.
The first time you let a battery go stone dead for more than 12-24 hrs, you have taken probably a year off its life. And if you let it run dry while charging, you have most likely done permanent damage to it, not to speak of how much you have shortened its life. And this is why I stress to replace w/ an AGM.....sealed lead acid battery, because the Savage is such a PITA to water the battery, that sooner or later the battery will run dry.

Therefore, if you keep it charged, you will be money ahead to spend the higher price for the maintenence free battery that will most likely never run dry.
It seems I've seen the "Big Crank" for $60-70 linked here.