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Savage won't start without carb prime.

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M

mwritter

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I have had my Savage about 6 months now. It was my first R/C, so I felt like I was in way over my head at the beginning. Now I understand things a little better and I am having a lot more fun with it. I finally got the patience to really tune it last week and it is running great.

Now the problem...when starting the truck cold, it does not seem to want to pump fuel to the carb. I have tried the towel over the exhaust and no igniter trick and it still won't pump. The only way I have found to get it started is to put a little nitro right in the carb...it will then run for a few seconds and pull gas from the tank. After that it runs and restarts great. But priming the carb is quite a hassle, I have to take the body off and take the air filter apart every time I want to use it. Is there any better way? Or can someone explain what may be wrong? Thanks for the help.
 
The quickest way i do it is to pull the line off the pipe and blow into it till the fuel hits the carb.
 
Mudbug said:
The quickest way i do it is to pull the line off the pipe and blow into it till the fuel hits the carb.
Click to expand...

If you decide to use this method, be extremely careful you dont get it in your eyes... We had a close call at one of our weekend bashes when a guy blew into the pressure line while looking straight down at the carb. Needless to say, he got a faceful of Nitro. Luckily he was able to flush out his eyes quickly with a water bottle.
I would suggest checking all your fuel lines & tank for possible leaks. You can also check to make sure your tank lid seals well. I usually put my finger over the exhaust & give it a few good pulls. This usually brings the fuel right up to the carb.. Good luck & be careful...
 
Mudbug said:
The quickest way i do it is to pull the line off the pipe and blow into it till the fuel hits the carb.
Click to expand...

I've tried that too, but it also requires removing the body every time I start the truck. Plus nitro fuel does not taste very good...
 
I would go with what Imbroken said, it sounds like you have a pressure leak somewhere. Either a cracked tank, exhaust coupler, carb neck, fuel and/or pressure line and maybe the backplate on the engine.

I've noticed hard priming when an engine gets some wear on it. Normally, not to long after, the compression is really noticably weak.

To prime, I don't use a towel, just my finger tip. Makes a better seal. Although, if it dies while running, you have to wait for the stinger to cool off some.
 
If covering the stinger and giving the starter a few tugs is not priming the carb, then you must have a leak somewhere. Check your tank lid to make sure it seals properly. Also check your fuel lines and if you have one, your fuel filter. I had a fuel filter come unscrewed slightly causing it to leak. Truck would die everytime I went full throttle and was a little difficult to start even with the EZ Start.
 
thanks everyone...some great suggestions. I will check those things out today. As a side note, I never thought the factory routing for the fuel line was very smart...it seems to run very close to many suspension pieces. Maybe it has worn a small hole somewhere.
 
after you check for any leaks or a cracked fuel tank seal up your backplate and carb with some rtv then if you want you can run a bulb primer like this one: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=5905128300
these work fine but as they get older they may be prone to air leaks as well but it nice new and its a filter all in one and its by ofna they make some pertty good stuff aloha........hb1111
 
i got a primer bulb for a mgt and put it on the savage. works great, moves a lot of fuel though so you have to be carefull not to flood the engine.
 
Some good suggestions here. I would also recommend using semi-clear fuel line. That way you can actually see where the fuel is in relation to the carb. This type of line makes it real easy to see if there's a problem. If my lines are bone dry, I like to do the trick mentioned above, which is to remove, and then blow into, the exhaust pressure tap line until I see fuel going into the carb.

When you plug the stinger with your finger and crank the engine to start, you should see the fuel steadily pulsing up towards the carb. If it ain't, then you got something leaking air, like fuel tank seal or pinhole in line.
 
Finally had time to try the above yesterday. I used my finger instead of a towel to plug the stinger. The truck started easier than it ever has before. Sounds like that trick alone will solve my problem, but I will try some clear fuel line when I get a chance anyway.

While it was running, I tweaked the fuel settings just a tad more and this truck is running better than ever. I now realize why it wasn’t so much fun when I first started. The truck accelerates very well, blows a nice steady smoke at full throttle, and I can really hear it shift now. It was running at just 285 after about 8 full throttle runs down the driveway.

It sounded so cool blasting up and down my driveway that my neighbor came out to find out what he heard “shifting.” He thought someone was riding a four wheeler.

Thanks to everyone for their help!
 
Glad to hear you got it running good. 285 may be a tad hot, not real bad, but a little warm. However, if you were doing a bunch of back-to-back full throttle runs, then the temp will certainly increase. Smoke trail is always good to see. It doesn't take much adjustment on needle settings to make a HUGE difference in performance, as you seem to be saying.
 

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