I bought my 15000 mile 1997 LS650 on Sunday, 05/05/2024.
I didn't get to ride it because a few days before the owner had started it up and then the vacuum petcock failed and filled it with gas. A friend volunteered his services and truck and we picked it up on the following Thursday, and I started ordering service items like a Raptor petcock, filters, oil, etc. Since I'd already started reading here at the forum before I went to look at the bike, I knew right away that the petcock was the likely culprit for the gas dripping from the airbox.
While draining the oil yesterday I remembered too late that I needed to allow space in the drain pan for the quart or two of fuel that was in the sump (I'd already mopped out the airbox). But I got the drain plug put back in before recreating the Exxon Valdez in the garage
The oil/fuel mixture was quite black, so I put a new filter and a couple of quarts of fresh oil in and ran it for about 5 minutes until it was pretty hot (and boy it does seem to get hot). When I drained the sump again the oil was still noticeably dark, so I felt OK with tossing a couple of quarts of oil after flushing the engine. With luck the soak in oily gas will have cleaned out some of the sludge.
I installed a fresh OEM-style airfilter and reinstalled the side covers and seat. But I found this bracket in the tub with the old filter.
It didn't seem to fit anywhere, and I didn't spot in when I took a look at the owners manual and parts fiche. Is this a Savage part, or just some random thing that Mr. Murphy left to puzzle me?
This afternoon I drove it to the local gas station and got a gallon or so of gas and drove it around the neighborhood (mostly up and down the hills here near the beach), a total of 2.4 miles by the time I got home.
Observations:
It sure is lean below 1/4 throttle. It needed the choke on for longer than I expected before it would stay running, and it didn't want to take much throttle until the RPM got up to mid->3/4 throttle. The owner before the one I bought the bike from had drilled 3 holes in the back of the muffler which probably didn't help, making it both unpleasant to listen to (loud and kind of a raspy sound) and I suspect adding to the lean condition. Chopping the throttle would provoke a loud backfire (or two).
At 6' tall I'm too large (height) for the bike. It has low bars without the risers (the prior owner was a not very tall woman) and it is too close-coupled for me.
The Raptor petcock seems to be doing the job and so far there are no signs of fuel or oil leaks.
When I could get it to take some throttle the power seemed OK, but maybe that was just the "sound o' power" muffler mods at work.
I had 3 or 4 cars fail to yield the right of way when they had a stop sign (all of this was within 4-5 blocks of home) and I decided that I didn't want to deal with that. When I go for a ride on my Kawasaki EX400 I usually go late morning and mid-week during nice weather so as to try to minimize my exposure to traffic, so this quick ride on a Saturday afternoon made me feel like sticking to those midweek times is probably a good plan.
I bought the bike for a project. I would have been happy to get a cheap crashed bike with engine/frame/current clean title/electrics, but this is what came along at the lowest price with "no hassles at DMV" papers (in and out at AAA in 10 minutes for the transfer of title). I think the engine can make for a fun bike once it is made to run decently. But that fuel I put in the tank is going to get drained and put in the Kawasaki, because I've no desire to ride the Savage in the condition it is in.
So that frees me to start taking it apart and turning it into something else. I've thought of a few options but I haven't settled on one yet. I'll start a build thread and post as I do something. It won't be one of those "one week from start to finish" deals though, as I'll fiddle with it when I think of something I want to do and have time to do it. I am sure that there will be very little of the original bike left when I'm done, which seems a shame to do to a reasonably clean bike. But maybe someone near to SF will get a chance to come and collect some spare parts so I don't have to try to squeeze them into the recycling bin.
Please let me know if anyone recognizes that bracket,
cheers,
Michael
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