The $300 1998 Suzuki Savage

Well not much done busy at work and home. After sitting five days happily it fired right up with some choke. It even idled. Need to fix front brakes. Added fluid and tried bleeding it but still goes to the handle. Still need to install pads.

Now with all the stupid rain I have to tune up the lawn mower.
 
GVH said:
Now with all the stupid rain I have to tune up the lawn mower.
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I bought a cordless rechargeable lawnmower a few years ago. Best investment ever, no more gas/carb/pull cord issues anymore, just unplug, turn on, go.
 
OK took the bike off the truck today. Tried firing it up. Back fired on full choke, Backfired on half choke. No choke fired right up. Idled well. I hopped on and drove around the compound. Back brakes fine. Fronts grab a little bit. So full wash down with a sos pad or two. Removed all surface rust. Polished that turd right up. Decided to tackle the brake bleed again. Open fill master. First 3 bleeds nothing. 4 to 10 loads of cloudy fluid and tons of little and big bubbles. Refill master. 11 to 20 bleeds fluid clearing up no bubbles. Lever getting stiffer farther from handlebar. Master at half full mark so button it up and off for another ride. We have front brakes. Still have not received pads. No one stocks these on order. Next problem is ripped seats. I was a little liberal with the hose down. Ripped seat equals wet butt.

So the bike has new tires, New battery, Brakes work properly, Headlight, Taillight, brake light and signals all work. Other than possible needing pads this should pass a cert.

Found this for a possible seat solution. Under $100 delivered.
http://www.ebay.ca/itm/SUZUKI-SAVAG...ash=item33be1a7010:g:YiAAAOSwB09YDUOv&vxp=mtr

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OOPS forgot the speedo cable needs to be installed or replaced and the oil light never comes on. Tanks coming off again.
 
Horn work for the certification too? Pretty necessary!!

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OK a bit more progress today. I removed the tank to tackle the oil light and speedo cable. I even found the correct little lights for the dash. After draining fuel and removing the tank I found that no wiring exists for the oil light. On further research I found some wiring diagrams show an oil light but others don't Seems to depend on year and country. Speedo cable took some fiddling to fit correctly but done. Out for a quick around the yard and it works. Bikes still starting but backfiring on startup. It flooded I think and ran sluggish. Not sure the carb it jetted correctly for the pipe. I may need to get a proper cleaning and jetting.

speedo face and what I thought was oil light. Second speedo rear with hole for light but sealed up.
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Interesting, also no mark on the dial to indicate oil. They were really trying to hit a price point with that bike to eliminate that. Especially when that bike is much more likely to be neglected and have low oil than an enthusiast bike.

For $300 you got an awesome bike.
 
Keep entry range bikes cheap and when they break, they have to upgrade to a more expensive bike. Plus the parts are probably from an earlier model of something. My tail light is used in at least a couple of bike models.
 
OK time to look at the charging system. I was told it may have a charging problem when I purchased it. I freshly charged the battery and it starts the bike for 2 days but eventually it runs down. Research before buying people talked about this bike barley producing enough volts to charge the bike up plus usual Suzuki charging problems. So I charged the battery over night in the bike. Plugged the volts meter in this morning it shows 13.3 volts. Once I turn the key to on it drops to 11.9 volts in 10 seconds. starting the bike went to 9.2 volts but started fine. With the choke on the bike idled and shows 13.1 volts. When I brought the idle up I noticed the volts drop from 13.1 to 12.5 and then back up as I dropped the bike back to idle. I realize that 9.2 at start up is to low. The drop in volts as it revs up I need to research more. I also need to try it a few more times to get an over all view of what it is doing.

My volt meter plugs into the trickle charger cable.
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Fresh charge not turned on
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Ignition turned on for 15 seconds
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Bike idling with choke on.
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OK finished a bunch of calls back at the shop. I unplugged the stator and regrec connectors. Very green ish corroded prongs. Found some 40 grit and 20 minutes on the prongs plus some brake cleaner. Small screw driver and 220 in the other side. Electric grease and reassemble. At idle on 1/2 choke volts when to 13.5. Bring the revs up a bit volts 14.1 consistently. 5 minutes of playing / riding around and around parked it. Key off it held 13.1 Key on not running it held 12.7 volts.

One oddity is the Regrec plug. One has 3 yellow as it should. Other has 2 coming out black and red. The plug this goes into has three wires. Red, black and orange. The orange has no match going to the regrec. It is talked about on some forums. No one seem to know what it was for.
 
"One oddity is the Regrec plug. One has 3 yellow as it should. Other has 2 coming out black and red. The plug this goes into has three wires. Red, black and orange. The orange has no match going to the regrec. It is talked about on some forums. No one seem to know what it was for."

Suzuki is a master for parts bin engineering - likely the same one is used on a different model.
Or maybe its the hookup for the intergalactic discombobulator ?
 
OK bikes still starting and charging so hope that's fixed. I will keep an eye on it and keep testing.

Need to fix the seats. $100 from ebay is a front and rear seat cover. Nice looking. I can buy the single S40 seats and bolt it on but it requires moving wiring, shimming front mount and drilling a hole at the back. All the upholstery shops are closed today around me will check on Monday for a local price. I also need to do the backrest. Anyone have a bike guy good and cheap for seat repair ??

I'm also thinking of doing the engine cover mod talked about on Savage forums. Basically replacing the bolt on the left top engine cover with a threaded stud. Then a bolt on top. This allows the cover to be hinged out to assess the sparkplug with out removing the tank. Very tight but can't be much worse than my DL650 front plug. Item 29 is the cover and #33 is the bolt that becomes a stud.

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OK found a local shop to do the seats at a good price. It's still starting and running ok. Need to drive it around enough to get it good and hot. See if anything new happens.

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Seats came out good, might aswell plug the shop, and if you don't mind, what did it run you? I have a couple spares, if it's reasonable enough I wouldn't mind getting one recovered.
 
JTR said:
Seats came out good, might aswell plug the shop, and if you don't mind, what did it run you? I have a couple spares, if it's reasonable enough I wouldn't mind getting one recovered.
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Apple Auto Glass Oakville (647) 343-6092 1033 Speers Rd #2, Oakville, ON L6L 2X5

I did black vinyl no special requests and no rush. 2 seats and backrest $250 cash. I was quoted as high as $500 by some shops.






Hours: Closing soon · 8AM–5PM
 
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