First off, welcome to RCNT.
If your got a Savage recently, your savage probably has the loctite already applied to the shift point screw. The older Savages did'nt come with it applied. I got a new savage a month or so back and had the same problem that you have. What I found, and you're probably not gonna like this, is that a bit of loctite had jammed the shift lever (or ball and spring that gives the lever tension) so that the lever could not swing out and engage second gear. Don't worry, it can be fixed without replacing anything. First off, is the shift point screw hard to adjust (turning wise)? Also, if you have a really thin tool, see if you can get the lever to move (through the adjustment hole in the tranny). If you can't then it's probably gotten loctited like mine was.
Here's what I did. Be sure to have the book handy to reference the parts assembly!!! Take the tranny out of the truck and open it up. Remove the spool with the two plastic gears (the one in the middle that doesn't have any out-drives). I had to remove the cover on the end of the second gear housing so that I could get at the lever. Remove the shift adjustment set screw, the spring and the ball. This may sound radical, but the problem is an excessive ammount of loctite. Be careful when removing the setscrew, as it may be difficult to turn. If it is, use a soldering gun to heat the aluminum where the screw is. This will soften the loctite and make it easier to remove. Once the setscrw, spring and ball are out, take a small flat head screw driver and press on the short end of the lever (this is the side where the setscrew was. On mine it was almost impossible to get it to swing out, but it eventually did and with a bit of work I got mine to swing freely. When you get it to this point, put the ball back in, then the spring, and the set screw. There should still be a bit of loctite on the threads, so you might not have to put any more on. If the screw is real easy to screw in, add a tiny bit of loctite and run the set scrw back in. Put the cover back on the second gear and reassemble the tranny, and reassemble the truck.
Now you have to retune second gear. I ran the set screw all the way in and then backed out like 1.5 turns. Find a parking lot and fire up the truck. Hold the truck in the air and slowly give it throttle until it is either wide open or it shifts. If it doesn't, shut the truck off and back the SPA screw out a half a turn. Then test again. Once it starts shifting, put it on the ground and test again. Adjust the shift point on the ground after that.
Like I said, I had the same problem and the above proceedure fixed it, but it took me about an hour and a half for the tranny work, and about 30 minutes tuning it. I hope this helps.
Whitt..
