Well I had a problem awhile back, it would idle but not rev up, after going through it I couldn't find the problem (not a bike guy). 5 or 6 days ago it was my birthday and a good friend of mine went through the whole bike and got it running (Ended up being nasty gas and very nasty carb's) and it was running greae t. Well I took it home from thshop the other day, I start to run outta gas, As I was riding I just put it in prime because I pretty much ran it out and it was hard to tell with my gloves on. Well when I got home I forgot to turn off prime and left it on over night.

I came out in the morning with gas that had leaked out of the bike underneath it. "Damn that was dumb", So I ride it to the gas station, it was acting like it was low on gas (Duh) so I get there and fill it up. Go to start the bike, no go. wtf?! After awhile I get it started and ride it home (Running like crap the whole way) and I pull off the tank and take out the air filter. There was standing fuel in there.

After some searching on here, I found that the float can sometimes be held down due to vapor lock caused by a plugged breather. Well I pulled that line off and blew through it, sure enough there was something in it. Haazaa! or so I thought. The bike does not start as easy as it did in anyway (Before it fired up perfect in 70f with the choke off [has 40 pilot]), you have to blip the gas or it will die. Putting the choke on does not help it from dying.

So I am hoping someone on here can help me out here, or at least point me in the right direction. Thanks for any help!

PS: the carb's should be perfect as they were just rebuilt as were the petcocks.

So is the question whether the bike should start without choke?  Sorry, it just seems like you answered a lot of your own questions. 

Maybe someone else that knows more than I do can clear this up, if the carbs were just rebuilt, they shouldn't necessarily leak if you leave the petcock on prime, right?  I've definitely done this a few times and it didn't seem to have an adverse results.

i think you may need to dismantle clean and unclog everything again.  maybe ya dropped a oring? maybe ya missed something? doesnt hurt to give it a try since you've already established the engine and electrical systems are in order.

Just curious, there wouldn't be has in the oil from leaving the petcock on overnight, would there?

Either way, any kind of dirt that was hanging around the petcock could have been sucked in when it was on "prime". Either a fuel filter is clogged or you idle / pilot jets are clogged.

Ok what I was asking is not why the choke doesn't work (it does work). The question is why would it be dying? the was running PERFECT!  (It made me love the gs again lol) but left the petcock on overnight and it leaked. idk I am just at a loss and trying to figure out what to do.  there is no fuel filter, and the jets I don't THINK are clogged and the petcocks were clean in every way (Including around the area). SO from what I gather, it should leak gas from being left on prime?

Ok, let me just see if I understand this correctly.  So is the problem that your engine flooded from leaving the petcock on prime, and now it won't start, or it does start, but you have to use choke (before you weren't using choke).

I meant if there was any dirt in the tank at all, normally it would sit about the internal pecock tube. Once the bike gets low enough on gas that you switch it to prime / reserve, that dirt is sucked into the carbs.

So, did you put in a new air filter?

Michael

You need to buy a carb repair kit x2.The reason your carbs are leaking on prime is;
A,your floats are not set to correct height
B,the o`ring that fits on the brass body that the float valve goes in needs replacing.
Both A,B will give you starting problems.

Well the problem is gone, I changed the air filter out and I got new gas (I am pretty sure that caused some of the problem) and the bike has been running great. I just don't use the prime part anymore. So one more gs500e for the road again lol