My bike had trouble starting after replacing the shim on the right exhaust valve and an oil change. At the time of the oil change, I put in about 200 ml more oil than the max. After riding around for about an hour, i drained the excess oil.

The bike started after the oil change and a few times after that until it stopped starting yesterday. I was getting some gas leaking into the airbox so I drained the floats and set the petcock to prime to start it up. Gas flowed freely into the airbox with the petcock set to prime. I figured the floats were stuck and took the carbs apart to clean them and reset the float.

That didn't seem to be the problem because the carbs were incredibly clean and the floats were functioning correctly. I put the carb back on the bike and it's still not starting.

The bike has a spark and the starter motor turns over. When I remove the left spark plug, it smelled of gasoline. The right plug didn't smell like gas at all.

Any ideas on what could be going on?

You sure the carbs are ok? especially the float mechanism?I highly doubt gas would overflow and spill into the airbox on a gs if the float mechanism is working properly.... even if something else is causing the no start issue.

I'm not sure the float is working correctly. I guess I'll go double check that now.

Ok, the float is definitely not working. When I took the carb apart, nothing seemed to be stuck. I know a blocked float air hose will do it. If I took the hose off that's supposed to vent the carb, would that equalize the pressure? Does anyone know which hose it is on a gs500f?

Hey hey, it started! I blew threw the air vent hose like in http://gstwins.com/gsboard/index.php?topic=33835.20 and drained the floats.. there was in there! I guess the water was stuck in some of the piping and preventing the thing from functioning properly. I wish I knew that before I disassembled the whole thing.

Now.. does anyone have a picture of a hose routing diagram from a california gs500f?