Posted by Bruce Clarke on June 09, 2000 at 16:14:02:
In Reply to: petcock on prime posted by john gerrard on June 09, 2000 at 13:46:20:
Maybe you have an 'aftermarket' petcock?
The standard one is marked with prime, to prime the carb when the float bowl is dry (see Frank's post).
On some petcocks, especially older bikes (like my Enfield), there is indeed an ON/OFF/Reserve setting. This is a non-vacuum petcock. The OFF setting is to turn off the flow of fuel to the carb; this prevents the carb from being flooded when sitting still.
It sounds like either the older Suzukis had the old style petcocks (news to me) or someone replaced the petcock at some point on your Savage.