Hello forum, I'm a new rider whose first bike purchase was a very messed up 2003 suzuki savage. I love the bike, and through the help of a good friend, we've performed all basic maintenance and gotten the bike running again.  The last thing I am having trouble diagnosing is a whine that comes from perhaps the transmission? Engine? While engine braking. I think that I hear the same noise when accelerating, however it is most prominent when engine braking from a high rpm, it can start as what sounds like a buzzing when coming down from a high rev, and turns in to a steady high pitched whine when I've decelerated to the bottom of the gear. The noise is not present when rolling at speed with the clutch engaged, or in neutral, which is pointing me to perhaps a gearbox issue? Or a worn bearing? Rather than a belt/sprocket whine. If this sounds like something to anyone, or if anyone could point me towards how I might go about diagnosing and subsequently fixing this issue please let me know. I would be happy to go and try to make recordings of the noise or provide more information/pictures if it would help. Thank you!

Lots of posts on the exact same topic on here.
Use Google and:  belt whining site:suzukisavage.com
The "site:suzukisavage.com" will specifically search this forum and works better than the built-in search for many things.

I had the same thing.  Mine was both the belt adjusted too tight and a bit of rear pulley wobble.  I try to run the belt a little loose, but shimming the rear pulley is what made all the difference in the world.

Look and make sure you dont have a passenger..
I noticed they whine a lot when I used to carry one occasionally..

You said you bought the bike in bad condition right?
Check to make sure your front sprocket is on tight
Make sure the rear wheel is tight too
Check if theres any wobble in the rear pulley

If youre trying to determine what is belt noise and what isnt, go to the store and buy some Gulf canning wax. Take a chunk and rake it across the belt, between front and rear pulleys. Get that area well dosed, roll the bike, do it more,,
Then go for a ride,,
Its messy,, cuz it slings wax on the wheel,, but youll soon know if its the belt,

Of course,, starting with the Experienced Savage riders approach to belt adjustment,,
Using a weak handed approach, twist the belt 1/2 way between the pulleys. You need to be able to get a 90 degree twist in it without working hard at all,,
Tight is noisy,,

Riding in the rain,, its Gonna be noisy
Tomorrow,,

Jeff, the belt whine is difficult to isolate from transmission whine.  As you power up or decelerate the rear pulley can shift/skew right & left.  That causes the sides of the belt to rub on the sides of the pulley.  I think you should spring the $15 bucks (or thereabouts) and upgrade to the double-row bearing.  It's a worthwhile improvement and certainly eliminates the belt voodoo.  Also very easy to do.

This old post gives you all the details.

http://suzukisavage.com/cgi-bin/YaBB.pl?num=1561964431

Good luck, Mike

Just as an update to whoever might see this, I ended up cleaning my belt and rubbing some beeswax on its sides, this took care of the majority of the noise and of the alarm I felt, though I'll probably still make some adjustments to the alignment after I replace the tires. I'm a noob rider so its still hard to distinguish between normal bike noise and problematic noise. At this point though I'm feeling pretty satisfied with things, it's an old bike, bought it neglected and not working for 700 bucks, the thing now runs fine and is fun as hell. Now if only the DMV's were more open with covid and I could get through the beurocracy and actually take it out of my neighborhood. That's a whole different kind of challenge. But anyway, thanks for all the input guys, super helpful stuff in this thread.