Posted by Justin on July 28, 1999 at 05:50:12:
Hey frank..I got your message and wanted to know why mine quit....heres the story: I bought my bike well abused about a year and a half ago...I got it for 25 bucks...it was in lousy shape. The first thing that quit was the cam chain slipped off the sprocket from overstretching....so it cost me 93 dollars to fix that myself. Next the entire wiring on the whole bike needed replaced from weathering..etc......106 dollars....new paintjob...300 bucks. Everything was going good until i heard a weird clicking sound...so I adjusted the valves...and it went away for about a week..then it returned...all the sudden power was gone and it just quit on me....The next day I tore into her to find that the camshaft had eaten through the rocker arms due to lack of oil....Camshaft=115 bucks, Rockerarms=90 bucks...this all occured due to dirt clogging the intake of the oil pump witch caused massive oil pressure loss...therefore ruining the top end of the engine. I dont know how the dirt got there but it did...it was more like sludge buildup...and my boss says its due to sitting prior to when I bought it. New oil pump=216 bucks......so I called it quits on the old beast...add all the money up and its not worth it, so I asked myself....why not get a new bike...so I did...A harley 1200 sportster..and not stock.its got 3 times the horses of the savage...and very nice im guess you could say glad the old savage quit......but seriously...you are on the right track...just change the oil very often and keep the level up...but most importantly, dont let the poor thing sit. The cam chain failure was at 18,546 miles.....the cam itself and oil pump and rocker arms all went at 37,982 miles.
I hope this helps,
Good luck
Justin