Good Morning,
Thank you all for your help with my previous post. This forum and its members have been amazing with info and help.
Upon riding my bike around town after fixing it, i am starting to notice that some of the screws don't look right. Yesterday, i was speaking with a savage owner with a bike one year newer than mine (05,06) and i asked him if the screws looked right. He confirmed my suspicions, the seat screw (back) is being held down by a battery terminal screw, the other screw (left side) is a black round headed screw and i think that one belongs there. There is no nut or washer with it either.
Then as i was inspecting my bike, i noticed something that could potentially be unsafe, or maybe causing air leakage and causing my backfiring issues at low idle.
https://imgur.com/a/1UXplvTThis is a photo of the guys bike, not mine. The circle is the bolt that i am missing. I added some other pics to show that the screws are wrong. I plan on ordering OEM screws this payday along with a raptor petcock.
There is a bolt missing on the bottom of the ring thing that is holding the exhaust pipe to the engine block. (if that's what it is, i'm still learning nomeclature)
My question is... Is it safe to be riding this bike missing that screw? Is it damaging the engine? Could that be an air leak causing backfiring?
What is the proper term for that part so i can order the bolt/screw?
I am taking my bike in this saturday to a mechanic to do a thorough inspection on everything since i have minimal knowledge on stuff. The bike is 14 years old and i have no idea if the brakes, belt, have ever been changed.
Any suggestions on what to do maintenance wise? I have already cleaned the carb, changed oil, will replace petcock, battery is new. Will replace sparkplug, air filter. Changed bulbs to new ones already.
Finally, I was riding around yesterday with a half a tank o gas and petcock on "fuel" i was losing power constantly and when i throttled, the bike sputtered and would jerk if i tried to give it gas.
I warmed the bike up and choke out before riding as suggested by another user. Eventually, i put the bike on Prime and the bike rode just fine. I'm convinced the vacuum in the petcock is causing this issue.
Thanks for reading this far and as always i appreciate your help!