Hello everyone, just bought this Savage 04 used and having a few growing pains with it. The 1st is the hard surging on every shift. If I accelerate  moderately hard on every shift the bike does a funny lurch forward. Its extremely bad and I can't understand what or why its doing it. Anyone have any insight on this? I've owned 30- 40 motorcycle's and never experienced anything like this. Feels like maybe the flywheel is too heavy and the engine isn't slowing down as I shift like a power shift type of thing but I'm not power shifting. I also can't find the trip odometer, is it hidden someplace I can't find? Never owned a bike that didn't have one.

I just bought the bike, fresh valvoline motorcycle 10-40, I think the carb was rejetted, seems to shift on the hard side too. Clutch seems to engage on the early side, Clutch free play is adjusted properly and the bike has a ton of power much more than I expected.

I looked those marks but I honestly don't understand what you are trying to explain to me. There is nothing to compare the marks too? If I pull up on the lever I assume i'm taking any free play out of the lever to the clutch rod. What I don't get is the marks compared to the lever? Do you mean the entire width of the lever someplace between the 2 marks? Also the bike starts easily in gear with the clutch disengaged, so I don't believe its dragging at all. I suspect the bike outside for a low time with old oil in the engine and maybe moisture swelled the clutch disks some but it doesn't slip and I ran it very hard. My Intruding was shifting hard but swapping out the synthetic for regular oil took care of that.   This thread https://suzukisavage.com/cgi-bin/YaBB.pl?num=1370480710/4 sums up exactly what mine is doing.

Here’s another thread from when I went through this in December.  Ignore the end where I complained about being able to move around in the garage.

If you change the push rod, I would also get one of The Sneeze’s clutch cams - made of hardened steel that’s less likely to break and leave you stranded somewhere.  

http://suzukisavage.com/cgi-bin/YaBB.pl?num=1701786315

I checked the lever position, it is in the very middle.  I believe I solved the hard shifting problem, I put the bike in gear with the engine off pulled in the clutch and it wouldn't move right away. Quite a delay till I could move it. That says to me the clutch disks are sticking to the plates, so I started the bike put in gear and slipped the clutch for a few mins. Shifts great now.

I only paid 1200 for it so i'm way ahead. I'm sure I could get 2500 or so. It actually shifts decent now so that alone really makes a huge difference. I only plan on using it a few days a week to go for a short ride or sandwich so i'm gonna guess maybe 500-1000 miles a year. I guess for now I'm going to sit on it and see how it goes till maybe May or June. The engine cases need cleaning up which I'm planning on doing myself. Bike makes a nice project to tinker around with. Gonna pull the clutch cover to clean it and weld a washed onto the cam tensioner. I do vintage tube amp repairs that keeps me very busy but I want a bike around to play with. Thanks for sharing your experience with me.

I wonder at 8500 miles how bad the cam chain could be worn?

The hard shifting and the LURCH forward are 2 different things. The shifting was hard and notchy but is ok now that I slipped the clutch a bit. I believe from sitting so long the clutch plates were expanded from moisture a bit. The lurch is some kind of inertia effect I believe from the weight of the counter balancer and the flywheel. Rev it up hard and shift it lurches badly forward then settles down. Go out on your bike wind it up hard 1-2 2-3 and as you shift and let the clutch back out it jumps forward for a split second. In the upper gears its not as bad I believe because the ratios are higher soaking the inertia from the rotating mass up. It reminds me of a old Triumph 650 I drove 40 years ago. The 96 Intruder I just sold drove beautiful compared to this but unfortunately was too heavy for me to handle anymore. I guess thats whats hurting me with the Savage, the Intruder was so different than this bike. The Savage does handle better in the turns because its so light AND I do like its power, super torquey.  

This bike has new tires and is in good condition with case corrosion. I'd say its a 7 out of 10 easily.

Agree that the cam chain is not stretched beyond spec limits at 8,500 miles.  Having probed the same question on the forum, some members have reported over 60k miles before the chain stretches out of spec.  DBM has done an awesome analysis and work on the rear chain guide.  It should be headlined “how to straighten a limp bent banana”.

The Versy cam chain tensioner mod is really a 3-fold solution: 1) it keeps the plunger from falling out and torpedoing the engine, 2) it lets the rear banana cam chain guide to continue to banana and do its job, 3) allows you to get the full service life out of the cam chain itself.

That said, I don’t think the LuRch is related to the cam chain, guides, and tensioner.  When I installed the Versy cam chain tensioner, my plugger was  extended out about 18mm (anything over 20mm is getting deathly close to falling out per discussion on the forum). That was at 12,000ish miles.  Each bike will be different depending on how it’s ridden - lots of stop and go short trips will stretch the chain faster than highway riding.

Starting with something simple for the cause of the lurch, have you checked the motor mounts/bolts?  I’d suspect something like that before flywheel and counterbalancer.