First of all, great site!
I found it while searching for info on my 1996 Savage. Mine is maroon and only has 6100 miles on it. I do have a question or two.

First, I found out that the rear brake switch connection at the foot pedal is not good. The switch does work. The cable will not stay put in the holder there. It all looks to be there to me, too. I'm thinking of putting a cable stay on the end of the line to hold it securely. Will this work? And if not, do any of you have any suggestions?

Secondly, the engine backfires when slowing from higher RPM's. The exhaust pipe is a bit blue. Could this be from bad fuel? And if not, can I adjust the carb? Please keep it simple...

Thanks in advance.

OHH, yea, thers a wimpy little spring on that switch, I think a spring from a ball point pen would work just fine. But, your switch may be messed up,

The back-fire can be lessened by adjusting low-speed (idle) fuel mixture screw.  If your bike is in the origianl condition (un-modified) then on the '96's the screw should be covered by a small brass plug (say thanks to EPA folks).

Look in the Tech Reference section,  and on the very top part is a link to a table of contents thread. Then look for Carb tuning and Carb spec listings.  The Carb spec's has pictures that show where the screw is.

Yea, its real easy.  Just adjust your air/fuel mixture.  Try a quarter turn richer, than go from there.  Do little by little till you get it.  If you are weary about doing this, take it to a bike mechanic.  Good luck!

mikemoses wrote on 04/24/08 at 03:19:33:

Counter clockwise.

But.....  you need to know where you're starting.  So, slowly go clockwise counting turns.  I do the counting by half turns becuase thats how I twist the wrist. ( 1/2....1.... 1 1/2.... 2 .... 2 1/2 ...)
When it bottoms out, just lightly make contact. Too much force can mess the needle surfaces.  Then... go back to where you were.  
Reason why you need to do this....... the screw is tensionized by a spring.  The tension keeps it from vibrating out. Well that spring only goes to about 3 turns out.  Any further and you risk having the screw vibrate out while riding....If you are at 3 turns, you'll need to get a larger pilot jet. (market place - Lancer sells the correct ones at a good price)