My OEM petcock started misbehaving on my 2001 Savage in 2006, when I had about 6000 miles on it.

http://suzukisavage.com/cgi-bin/YaBB.pl?num=1152108113/0

Bike was running rich under some conditions, which indicated to me that fuel was leaking into the vacuum line and on into the intake manifold.  No visible fuel in said vacuum line, but could smell a faint odor of gasoline in there.  Found some raw gasoline in the airbox's drain tube, though, about 1/2 ounce.

Ran in PRIME successfully with no problems for several years before switching to a Raptor.

Mine was failed at 7400 miles when I bought it. First time I got a little froggy with the throttle and ran up through the gears it quit. Raptored awhile later after seeing it on here. No problems except let gas go bad once and had to drain, put on filter and refill.  

My shift link broke on my 2013 today going from neutral into 1st after backing out of a friends driveway

Only 4700 miles on the bike

justin_o_guy2 wrote on 05/25/14 at 21:23:01:


I have for a little while. It also felt like it wouldn't go all the way into 5th. Like it only went up 1/4 of the way

verslagen1 wrote on 05/25/14 at 22:09:45:


I've had my 2003 for about a month and a half and right at 2100 miles. Time for oil change #3 to finish flushing out the T6 dregs from the clutch pack...

It must have been that the rod was bent because I am religious about changing my oil. I change it every 800-900 miles

Good thing is I've got so e of Mule's forward controls coming to me so I'll replace it all in one shot  

Thank you gentlemen

They've known since at least late 1998. They just don't care, the Savage is their "loss leader" entry level beater street bike. They literally used to send out 2 per dealership, whether the bikes were wanted or not.  I know a local to me dealership that has brand new still in the crate 1990s reintroduction and newer Savages/S40s stacked up outside. He puts them in an unlit, poorly secured part of his property and hopes the scrappers will steal them. He absolutely LOATHES the model, won't even sell replacement parts for them. If you show up on one you are told to leave and never darken his door again.

The owner's manual for my 1998 gave a projected service life of 5 years... and that was for sunny weekend summer barhopping type use. Very low mileage service life expected.

Suzuki makes it money off C50 and GSXR sales, the rest of the line is just "fluff" or window dressing. The LC1500 was a spectacular flop, the VS series looked like something from bad anime movies, and the bikes that truly ran right (1500/1600 Marauders) were rebadged Kawasaki Vulcan Mean Streaks with ugly headlights swapped on...

The Savage is an easily defused ticking time bomb. WE have worked out most of the design flaws. In the words of the late lamented Iron Horse Magazine... "F*** the Factory"...