Good Morning Thumpers!
I am going to start a new thread so I can keep all of Sad Savage's info in one place, starting with copying my intro:
Sad Savage wrote on 09/12/17 at 20:47:15:

May 26, 2018
It was a B*TCH bolting her solenoid in place!  Not only am I trying to figure out which of the few loose bolts I have may go where, but also trying to figure out what size and threads to purchase as replacements!  The Suzuki LS650 parts list is nice, but even searching the part number online doesn't give that information!  So far they mostly seem to be an M6 with a 1.00 pitch, leaving me to guestimate length.

I had to pull her battery box (only held in with one bolt!) so I could loosen her air box and move it forward to get into where the solenoid bolts to the rear fender.  I could only get the top bolt in.  It doesn't look like the bottom bolt lines up with the lower mount on the fender, which is possible given that it's on '05 (I believe) S40 fender and not the original '96 Savage fender.  At least the top bolt is tight and I feel like the solenoid will safely stay in place.

June 6, 2018

I stop by my friend's where the Savage in the garage to be worked on.  He tells me to cut lengths from the end of a siphon hose with the right size tubing to use for the vent hoses.  Cool!  Pull her tank to properly run them up over the carb to the little box in the frame under the decomp control unit (thanks to the Suzuki Savage/S40 Project group on facebook for showing me where they are supposed to go!).  Put her all back together.

I push her to the front of the garage because the handlebars they put on her are too wide for the length of her throttle cable and she tachs out on left hand turns (her original bars and the mini-apes Angel wanted installed are among the parts that are MIA).  She starts right up, idles for a moment, I put her in gear and only go a few feet and bla, bla, blaaa ... she stalls like she's out of gas.

Ok.  I had her fuel line disconnected and foolishly started her in Run instead of Prime.  Thinking she had an air bubble in her line, I switch her to Prime and crank her a couple times.  When that didn't work, I pulled the vent lines off the carb nipples as that was the only significant change and maybe the ends were occluded.  Crank her a couple more times and she still doesn't start.  Push her back in the garage.  I'm so frustrated I want to cry!   :'(  Plug her back in and ride my 1200 Sportster "Cherise" to lunch.

She's been on Prime while I was out but her battery is not back to full charge yet.  I loosen the drain screw at the bottom of the carb bowl.  Yep, she's got fuel.  Dang!  Now she's dripping gas from the drain screw.  Turn the gas back off ("Run" position on the petcock).

Somebody had obviously tried to add a piece of gasket on top of the original gasket on the screw.  I clean all the old gasket material off the screw, but all I have to work with is fuel grade (yellow) teflon tape.  I wind a little on her threads, then add a hump near the head of the screw to squish into a gasket when it's tightened.  It took a couple tries, but it works.

The next "logical" thought is that I disturbed some wires going to her decomp control unit.  Either that, or something has an intermittent problem aggravated by heat.  I just went through that with "Cherise".  She'd bog down like she was running out of fuel, then pick up again.  First we replaced her VOS (vacuum operated switch) hose.  That didn't solve it, so we swapped out her H-D ignition module and coil for one made by Dyna.  She now runs really sweet and the heat doesn't bother her!

Not much more I can do until her battery charges.  Call it a night.  

June 8, 2018

Battery indicator is showing full charge.  Hoping against hope that she was just flooded or didn't have quite enough juice or whatever would just magically disappear.  I got a few clicks, a whirr of her starter, sounds that would generally indicate a dead battery.

Pull her tank, check to make sure her spark plug cap is well seated.  Check the connections on the decomp controller, look closely for any bare or kinked wires.  Pull her left side cover to check the connections at the CDI box/Ignition Unit ... all with the same response ... but I notice her negative battery lead is getting HOT!    That just doesn't seem right, not to where I can feel the heat through my pants where it is touching my leg!  Bad ground connection?

Pull the battery and leave it to charge (via the whip which I left connected) since I have now tried cranking her several times.  The battery seems very warm, but I'm too focused on the negative lead to really pay attention.  

There had been a gob of electrical tape near the terminal end forever (meaning it was that way when my daughter bought the bike).  When I had investigated I discovered that it was because the terminal end had been spliced on.  I had replaced the end and got rid of the splice, "just because" it was a butcher job.  I rechecked my work to make sure it had a good solid connection.  I then traced the negative cable to a junction coming out of the CDI Box/Ignitor (haven't unwrapped it to see if that was also spliced, but I wonder   ) and on down to where it where it screws onto the back of the engine.  This looked tight and like it had not been at all tampered with, so I left it alone.

Make sure all the wires that go behind the battery box are well situated so they won't pinch.  Reinstall the box (with four bolts this time) and just for ha-has, since my initial test had been to hook the jump start box directly to the cables sans battery.  I did it again.  She cranked just fine! (She didn't start though).

Back to the battery, still not indicating full charge, and hot.  I notice a couple white marks on the edge opposite of the negative terminal.  They're smooth like it was melting, not rough like it had been bumped.  It has a tester on top that is now showing red indicating "bad - needs charge" rather than green "ready to use" like it did when I got it.  It has a clear top, and closer inspection shows corrosion by the negative terminal.  Gel is also visible in the top and was that way when I received it, but I've never been able to see in a battery before to know if that is normal.

Now I am thinking all of this has been a battery issue from the start.  Twice before in my many, many years of riding I have had batteries that showed full (12.6) voltage on a tester, but had a bad plate inside not allowing the juice to flow.

I use this trickle charger (Schumacher 1.5 amp maintainer/trickle charger) on both of my bikes with no damage to their batteries, so that's not an issue.  Yellow indicates charging, yellow flashing indicates abort mode, green pulsing indicates full charge in maintaining mode.  It also has a red light that would indicate reversed polarity, though this is something I am super careful about anyway.

Hopefully, APEX will warranty replace the battery since it has only been three weeks since it was ordered, and less since it was received.  In the meantime, just to rule out all possibilities, I would like to test the voltage regulator, the decomp control unit, and the CDI Box/Ignitor.  I realize it's going to take juice to accomplish this.

Keep in mind, I am not a mechanic and need everything spelled out for me.  I know nothing except what I have learned from the forums and reference materials listed earlier in this thread.  I just believe in this bike (especially since she ran so sweet last weekend!) and want to help a friend.  This is what I have found so far ...

Oldfeller--FSO wrote on 08/30/11 at 07:57:26:


Thank you Oldfeller for making it short, sweet & simple!

Welcome to JA!
The compression release on the 650 Savage is controlled by an automatic electronic control system solenoid that senses when the starter is engaged and registers the timing in order to release compression on the exhaust valves upon initial cranking and then engage it when the starter reaches its full rpm's. the solenoid is connected by cable to the compression release on the head of the engine. To test this unit first understand that this control has 2 timers one that releases the compression for about 0.7 seconds for release and a second timer that engages the compression after about another 0.5 seconds returning the compression lever on the engine to normal position.
To test the first timer remove the seat and unplug the wiring harness from the automatic decompression control box. Then set a DC voltmeter to the 25 volt range at plug the (+) let to terminal 3 and the (-) lead to terminal 5. Now hook up two jumper wires one from the (+) side of the battery to terminal #1 and the (-) one to terminal #5 . The voltmeter should read 12 volts for 0.7 seconds and then go to zero.
To test the second part of the circuit hook a jumper from the battery to terminal one and two and the negative battery terminal to terminal 5. Now run the (+) side of the voltmeter to terminal 4 and the (-) side of the voltmeter to terminal 5. the voltmeter should read 0 (zero) then after 0.2 seconds of starting it should read 12 volts thereafter.
*NOTE; the terminals on the control unit if the plug is facing you and the notch is on top read from left to right on top 1,2,3 and on bottom 4,5,6.
Let me know if you have any more questions.
RD  https://www.justanswer.com/motorcycle/90xk3-function-decompression-solenoid-1...

June 13, 2018

Happy to say that I have confirmed a bad cell in the new battery and APEX is warrantying it.  I'm hoping that is the source of all the problems since she ran so sweet on June 3rd!  I definitely plan to double check her voltage regulator when the new battery is installed, "just because".  Easy check.  Thanks Oldfeller!!!!

I have learned so much from you all!  I can't thank you all enough or I would probably still be chasing down a phantom that probably doesn't even exist!  I'll post again after the new battery arrives.

I hope maybe my story will help and/or give hope to another frustrated newbie!

When checking the battery voltage you should watch it as you crank it over. Just turning on the ignition will drop the voltage .5V and if you watch closely, (you only have a fraction of a second) it will drop another 1.7V a total drop from resting to cranking should not be more than 2.5V so you can have an apparently fully charged battery at 12.6V that will momentarily drop to 9.6 or less indicating it's dead on it's feet.

You should not have to turn the petcock to "PRI" every time you start the bike - you only need to do that if the bike has not been run for weeks and the fuel in the float bowl has evaporated.

The explosion in the exhaust at shut down is a result of you killing the ignition to stop the bike - however the engine is still turning over and pumping unburned fuel into the hot exhaust.  Once the unburned fuel gets hot enough to ignite - the result is an explosion in the exhaust system.  If the engine idle speed is high it takes longer for the engine to stop turning and more fuel/air is pumped into the exhaust system....and a lean idle mixture can also cause the explosion to be louder than it will be with a proper mixture (however don't jet the carb for the shut down....jet the carb for how the engine runs).  A properly jetted engine with a normal idle speed generally just makes a gentle "poof" at shutdown - although the less restrictive the muffler you have on the bike the louder the explosion will be.

Sad Savage ,I know your trying to keep costs down ,but the bottom line is you need to have the bike run safely and reliably . You need to change the bars for safety, and changing to a Raptor petcock (about $30) will I think relieve your starting/running problems. The diaphragm in your stock petcock is old and stiff ,the vacuum from the carb doesn't want to open it and is starving fuel flow to the carb. the bike has compression and spark (or it would never have run) that leaves only fuel to be the problem. Do yourself a big favor ,get a raptor! If the bike doesn't run after that you'll need to check the carb for proper jet sizes and to see if it's clean, and a new battery wouldn't hurt.