Hey guys, i'm new here so don't be afraid to point me in the right direction if this isn't posted in the right forum.

So this whole story started with me buying my first bike two months ago. An 2006 gs500F with about 5000 miles on it. The previous owner had it sitting for about two years before i got my hands on it.

Initially the bike started up and ran great. After a while i noticed it had a hard time starting up in the morning when it was about 15 degrees celsius or lower. So i started to use starter fluid to get the bike going in the morning, the rest of the day she would start up fine. I figured the carb was dirty so i pulled it off and cleaned it out and put it back in, but i guess it wasnt enough because the bike ran exactly the same. When the bike is just started and i don't let it run on the choke for a long time before riding it, it will sputter and backfire up until about 2000 rpms until the engine warms up.

So thats the background on the bike. Today i wanted to go for a ride with a buddy of mine. The bike started up and ran just fine. Stopped for fuel on the way and filled up with super. Then went off and stopped for breakfast. That's when the bike didn't want to start back up again. Initially the starter would turn (initially really slow, then speed up to faster than usual), i was getting compression but no ignition. So i got a buddy of mine to bring over some starter fluid and try with that. Still no ignition. We tried boosting it off of his car, still no ignition. Then the starter would turn but start to seize after one or two go's. After that it would always seize. So then i finally move the bike out of the sun and into the shade while i was waiting for a pickup to move the bike, when i notice fuel leaking from the hose leading from the bottom of the airbox to the ground. So i take off my gas tank, and pull out the air box and sure enough the filter is all soggy and the thing was half flooded...

Im really at a loss here and could go for a little bit of direction. I know this is a long read and all but i would really appreciate any insight into what the problem/problems might be.

Thanks and take care.

Did you put a new battery in it?

Airbox flooded, I presume by gas rather than oil?
In that case Carb needles are not seating and gas is overflowing. Might also fill up the combustion chamber which is why starter can't turn .  Too much resistance by the fluid.

Sent from my SGH-I337M using Tapatalk

Quote from: RedMark on July 05, 2015, 11:33:02 AM
Did you put a new battery in it?

Nope never touched anything electrical on the bike. Haven't done anything to the battery.

Quote from: bmf on July 05, 2015, 11:46:12 AM
Airbox flooded, I presume by gas rather than oil?
In that case Carb needles are not seating and gas is overflowing. Might also fill up the combustion chamber which is why starter can't turn .  Too much resistance by the fluid.

Sent from my SGH-I337M using Tapatalk

Yeah it was flooded with fuel not oil. I've seen the carb needles get blamed for flooding before so i figure i'd give it a shot. I want to get the carb disaselmbled and cleaned in an ultrasonic bath for an hour or so. Hopefully that will solve a few of the problems with starting it. Then to prevent the carb needles from sticking, should i just re-lube it with some white lithium grease? How do i go about draining the combustion chamber to see if it's flooded, (take out the spark plug to take a look?)?

Also. Ever since i put the carb back onto the bike i had the petcock set to "PRI" which i thought meant primary (tank). Now apparently someone just told me that it stands for "Prime" which could explain the overflooding of the combustion chamber and air box. The bike wasn't running when it started leaking, and unless i'm mistaken when you put it on prime it doesn't use a vacuum to get the fuel to the carbs, which would make sense in this case, and could possibly explain the hard starts in the morning. But if that's the case why the sudden crazy flooding today and not for the three weeks or so that i've been running on "PRI"

There is your culprit more than likely. If you have it set to prime, it can (and more than likely will) flood your carbs and then your airbox. Set it to ON or RES and see the problem persists. If so, fuel float needles. Otherwise, setting and leaving on PRIME will do that as is bypasses the petcock vacuum.

Float needle valves and frame petcock are in series not parallel.  If left on prime fuel won't leak into the engine or airbox unless a carb needle valve is also leaking.  If left in on or run and there is a leaking needle valve only the small amount in the carb bowl will leak thru which could cause flooding and hard starting.

Ok well i might have temporarily solved the issue for now. I tried turning over the engine this afternoon with the petcock on "On" instead and it ran. I'm going to have to do an oil change and get a new air filter because there is a pretty strong smell of fuel in the oil. I want to see if this helps solve some of the startup problems i had in the morning. It would make sense that i would have a hard time starting up in the morning if it was always just a little flooded. I'm still not sure what made it go overboard today but i'm monitoring it right now and everything seems in check.

I appreciate all of the insight. I'll check in if there's anything else.

Have you checked your float level? Check your float level.

Ok so i just got back from work now. Woke up this morning and noticed another, much smaller pool of fuel coming from the air box drain hole again. After work i saw an even smaller spot just a few inches in size. There is still fuel in the gas tank.

So at this point, ive been told that it could be a stuck needle in the carb. I just need to understand the fundamental operation of the gs carb. The reason i say this is logically, if the carb is properly hooked up, even if the float needle is stuck, if the bike isn't running it shouldnt be sucking gas into the carb. Therefore there shouldn't be flooding if the bike isn't running/ isn't set to "prime".

Which leads me to think that i may have either a defective petcock (which i will verify in a few minutes) or the lines are hooked up wrong.

Otherwise, another way of seeing things could be that since the gas tank is higher than the carb, so no matter if there is a vacuum or not, gravity would always supply fuel to the carb. So a stuck needle could be the culprit in that case, however, that would totally render the "prime" setting on the petcock useless...

Well i got to test several things today. So i know the float bowls are working because i had it set up to the petcock and gas tank without the float bowls cover. By manipulating the floats manually, i noticed that they would get gas with the bowls down and fuel would stop when they were up.
The petcock itself is also working because it will only leak fuel on the "prime" setting.
With the airbox off and the carb hooked up to the petcock/tank, and the setting to prime, i checked for leaks. Nothing. I ran the bike and she ran all right.
The only thing i found, is that my float bowl covers were inversed with one another, therefore making the carb drain screws inaccesible on the inside. But other than the screws themselves the covers seem identical one another, so it seems unlikely to be the culprit.
I have it all set up again, so all i can do for now is continue to monitor for leaks cause im all out of ideas.