I am brand new to this hobby and just bought a used savage 21.It has an electric starter. when I start it the wheels spin. If I sit it down it stalls,if I hit the brake it stalls. I checked my idle setting as per the owners manual and I can't turn the idle any lower. It is at it's limit. Does this mean I have a bad clutch or is it me being new and not knowing anything yet. Please can somone give me some suggestions. The manual is so informative (lol) as I'm sure you are all well aware of. Thank for your time and help everybody.

well, first its used so u dont know whats it been through so to fix this check EVERYTHING over. clean the air filter, buy some after run oil, and check the glow plug. if its all stock tune the engine to factory settings and then let it warm up and then tune it and try to keep the temp under 270. hope this helps

I'm willing to bet it's your clutch - I had the same problem where the spring had broken in the clutch.

How did you buy it? If the spring was weak and the truck has been shipped somewhere, it might've taken a bump and finished the spring off

It should only be one screw to remove the clutch bell and take a looksie

Let us know how it goes

it's in your clutch, either broken spring or bad bearings. taking the clutch bell off is a one screw event, getting to it is a 9 screw process.
take the cooling head off, this lets you get to the engine mount bolts.
remove the engine mount bolts, 4 of them ,two on each side of the block
DON'T remove the engine bolts from the bottom of the chasie or you will have to re-aling the clutch/spur gears!!!
undo the throtle/break elbow (the 90 deg. thing with one phillips screw)
take off the exaust spring
the block will get "hooked up" on the chasie, just use a flat screw driver to pry it out
it sounds worse than it is
now you can get to that easy one screw on the clutch
good luck

Thanks for the heads up on dismantling the savage

Still waiting for mine to arrive so I couldn't give a complete low-down on what needs to be removed...

Thank's for your help. It was the clutch,one of the shoes inside was broken. I replaced the shoes and I've been having a blast running the truck ever since.