Well time to ask a question…I have been trolling around this site/forum for the past 6 months or so and it has helped me so, so, so many times. The DIY/tech section has a wealth of knowledge.

So quick history/story and then on to my question…

Bought my 98 Savage from a neighbor for $650 (I know a steal right…); it was his second bike and just wanted it gone. It ran really well but was pseudo bobbed (i.e. parts taken off, none put back on). This is what it looked like.









Not so bad, but there were a few issues…the battery was held in with electrical wires and zip ties (rattled around a bit), all the electrical wires were literally crammed behind where the battery was sitting, there was a random piece of sheet metal under the seat near the rear wheel “holding” stuff in (you can kinda see where the rectifier was in the pic), the air filter was essentially trash, it was missing the front fender, and the gas tank had a few pin holes in it that were covered with what I think was toothpaste…other than that it ran great.

After a few trips to a few places and some purchases from some members on the board here it looked like this (did the Raptor petcock as well):





Check out that battery box and key relocation…boom!!!

Then I found a good used gas tank and it currently looks like this:



Alright, that’s the quick history. Over this winter I have a few things to do:

-      Oil plug/cap fix – I bet you could see the oil leaking in a few of the pics
-      Weld the muffler to the header (see the exhaust leak soot?)
-      Cam chain tensioner…need to check this but it’s >18K miles so I’m betting that I’ve been rolling the dice riding it…
-      New gaskets, o-rings, where appropriate in the reassemble.

Question(s) – would it be worth it or beneficial to take the engine out of the frame to do this? I made the mobile engine stand (again shout out to the table of contents), and have the wrenching capacity to do it, just not sure it’s worth it…thoughts/advice?

Also, I was debating on swapping out to a chain drive (read through all the posts already)…besides the ability to change gearing easily, what is a big advantage with the chain drive?

Any other thoughts and observations are quite welcome!!!

Nice, very nice, all I can say is ... your bike now looks 1000 times better.
The bobber thing has been so over done.
Cool.
Srinath.

Much cooler than when you got it.
Key oil tank thingy is ace.
Where have you stashed the battery? inside the airbox?

Ok, back to wrenching…bike has 19K+ miles on it so I figured it would need the tensioner replaced…I was right. Using a super accurate measuring tool, it’s about 18mm out…time to contact Verslagen1…





I’m also replacing the head plug seal…I took off the chrome covers and went to take a gander at how nasty the spark plug area was (def gonna clean that out good before the spark plug comes out)…and I almost fell over when I saw this guy hanging out in there…not something you expect to see near your spark plug…





No joke I wonder how long he’s been in there…I bet you all didn’t know the Savage can ride 3-up?

Anyhow…I’ll clean that area out and then keep on going with the repairs.

Re fitting the front mudguard may even help front end stability a little. It's common sense to have one.

diamond jim wrote on 01/06/13 at 16:57:28:


Yep Jim.....I've seen the fuzzy little feller called about everything,including Rowboat,but that is a first ! And Sero....you do imitate a windscreen...catching all the crap that flies through the air!  

Literally just noticed his name is SerowBot....have read it as ScrewBot for almost a year now...reading PWNS me.

Thanks for the compliments folks!!

greenmonster wrote on 01/09/13 at 10:40:24:


I second the motion!