Hi all, I have been reading on this forum for close to a year and finally got an s40, 2005 with 4K miles. Had many bikes since the late 70s, mostly Italian but have been intrigued by a big thumper.

So far I am preparing by ordering stuff like a raptor petcock, oil filters, Batterytender Lithium battery.

The bike starts, just barely runs and it is very rough and I can not give it gas, wont rev or make any power.
It sat for not sure how long since last running, probably a year or so in a garage.
Battery is weak even after charging but it cranks fine if I have jumper cables attached to another battery in one of my other bikes.
This weekend I will probably have the raptor and replace the petcock and if that does not resolve the problem I will drop the float bowl and clean the carb a bit.
I would appreciate any feedback as to other usual or possible causes.
I will be changing the oil with rotella t4 this weekend too.

Thanks,
antmanbee

Saying this from having done it a lot and knowing it's not that difficult, I would clean the carb regardless to eliminate that as being any part of the problem. No telling what could be in there if it sat from the previous owner.

- You may need an impact driver to get the screws loose to open the carb. As noted, they are JIS screws but you can grind the tip of a phillips bit to make it fit these JIS screws a bit better and lessen the chance of stripping them out. As available, replaces with allen screws as 1st2know indicated.
- Be careful with the plunger, Don't tear it or poke a hole in it, and when reinstalling in the clean carb make sure there is no grease or fingerprints on the carb body or slide. Little things can cause the slide to stick.  Personally I cleaned mine with WD40 and lightly dried with a lint free cloth. Make sure you put it back in correctly with the little nib in the diaphragm top in the associated nib in the top of the carb where it seats and seals.

Once you have a clean carb, fresh new fuel, raptor, we can tell if it is then another issue such as jetting?  Best to do one thing at a time and isolate the issue than doing a laundry list of things at once, but a petcock change and carb cleaning are a must regardless.

Lastly, in case you're thinking about it DON'T connect to a car battery with a car running as it can be too much juice for these bikes. Connecting to a non-running car is OK, just don't crank the car up.

Does someone know off the top of their head what the size of the carb bolts are and how many so I can pick up a set on my way home?

My cheap ass jumper cables wont pass enough current to start a car so it is doubtful they could damage anything. But I am using the battery in my unstarted Guzzi that is parked next to the s40 for the jumping.

The bike was owned by a woman and it appears that she made no mods at all so it more than likely has stock jetting and the exhaust is stock.

I hope the raptor mostly cures the problem as I don't want to get into the carb this weekend if I don't have to. I know I will be into the carb later as I plan to probably add a dyna and switch to a pod.

Courtesy of Dave:

Thanks for the picture of the carb. Just what I needed.
Are stainless recommended or steel of what spec for the bolts?
I'll be sure to blow out the debris from the plug hole.

http://suzukisavage.com/cgi-bin/YaBB.pl?num=1488995381

I have a fastenal store near by and have got some stainless for my Guzzi from them. I will look over the bike and maybe do some other stainless replacements too besides the carb.

Well, There's yer Prawblum!

Stolen from Mythbusters.