I have an 86 savage. I have read about cold starts and needing to warm up the bike for before it runs well, but mine needs the idle maxed out from a cold start. and that's with the temp at mid to upper 80s. over time I am able to bring it down and run well. I have hard starts and need to use full choke every cold start. I should also mention that I have it straight piped.

Could it be the straight pipe? maybe valve adjustment? I did an adjustment about 2 months ago, maybe I didn't get the clearances close enough?

I never intended to have a straight pipe. The aftermarket muffler I put on didn't fit right with the baffle in it. The quick solution was to remove it. I've been thinking about cutting the baffle and rewelding it together to make it shorter but I haven't gotten around to it.

Are you talking about the petcock? I don't have a stock Petcock. Mine is gravity fed.

I'm running a 52.5 pilot jet, 155 main, and 2 washers for the needle jet. I don't have any backfiring or decel issues.

Serowbot wrote on 07/31/18 at 13:09:49:



Yes I made sure to have it capped off at the carb.

Once I have it warmed up it runs fine. I'm able to get the idle down to what I would expect normal would be. Just staring it first thing from overnight is tough. I know that when the temp gets down to 60s maybe even 70s It's probably not going to be able to start.

Bottom line! You need to get a decent muffler .then tune the carb to it, that is the logical progression , running a straight pipe with no baffle is like spitting into the wind ,it just doesn't work on a Savage.(Or most other bikes for that matter).

A lot will depend on what your "new" muffler is, and what elevation your running the bike at . Both will have a direct bearing on how you tune the carb. The stock jets for an 86 are 47.5/155and/the stock white spacer, you've gone up two sizes on the pilot to a 52,5 and two washers on the needle, this MAY make the low to mid range rich if your not riding at sea level ( and MIGHT be why you have hard starting- to much fuel, not enough air, unless you open the throttle fairly wide). because your open exhaust tends to do just the reverse (lean the fuel mix-due to the open exhaust) the open  throttle allows the bike to finally start but only allows  high idle speeds ,until it warms. I'd pull the sparkplug to see if it's black (soot)  that would  indicate it 's running rich, the plug can be cleaned and reused.