1997 Yamaha Kodiak 400 - Leaked when manually moving

[83BMichigan]

I woke up this morning and had a faint smell of gas in the house. I went to the garage and it was insanely strong and it looked like my Kodiak went the bed 🤦‍♂️.

I searched around and it looks like it leaked out the overflow from the carb. 
This was all after manually moving it around (turned nothing on/off, shifted nothing, etc)

I had replaced the carb in the winter and had no issues after quite a few uses. I did realize I failed to turn the petcock off when I was done riding over the last few months. When I pulled the fuel line off the carb to drain it, it still had good vacuum. The fuel even stayed in the fuel filter when I had it in the off position to drain it into a spare gas tank to drain off any remaining fuel, turned it back on and it flowed well. 
 

I am not sure why just moving it around (cleaning garage) but not turning it on at all would cause this to happen?

[Mech]

Those things don't have a vacuum operated tap do they, or a vacuum operated fuel pump ? If it doesn't have either of those, then I'd ignore it for the time being. If it has either of those, check the vacuum hoses for fuel in them.

I'd ignore it and see if it plays up again. If you've checked the tap, and it is closing off correctly, then I'd guess you might have turned the tap on intending to start it up and move it, then pushed it out instead, and forgotten to turn the tap off ?

The float needle that sets the fuel level can leak if the tap's left on, and cause a carby overflow,  but still operate fine in use without any problems..

[Gwbarm]

If your fuel tap has on, off and reserve not vacuum operated, if it has a prime setting it does. My 01 big bear does not have one but it may have been changed, they are troublesome, my 04 eider does have one. I have several motorcycles from mid 70s that do have them so they have been around a while.

[83BMichigan]

The quad doesn’t have a fuel pump. There’s on/off/res at the petcock. I didn’t turn the petcock in any direction when moving. 
 

I’ve seen people syphon gas manually (hose/rag at fuel tank) and then go to the other end to start pulling out the air and creating a vacuum and I’m curious if that is what occurred.
 

The odd thing is it was a lot of gas, more than what would’ve been in the bowl just sitting. There was fuel in the fuel filter coming off the petcock that leads to the carb but yet the gas tank still had a decent bit of gas in it. It was a few hours after moving it that I noticed so maybe it was a steady drip for awhile. 
 

At this point, lesson learned on my end. When you guys store these for a few months, how do you deal with the gas that remains in the carb bowl? Draining it seems like gas would crystallize?

[Curtis Underwood]

Those 4 wheelers all have issues with the carb needle valves which shut of the fuel to the carb when the carb bowl is full. Since you stated it was leaking from the carb overflow then the needle valve is not cutting it completely off. This can and does cause more problems then just fuel leaking out on the floor. It can floof back into the engine and into the oil through the rings. If this happens it will cause damage to the cylinders, main bearing and valve seals. Mine leaks by the needle but I trun the pitcock valve to the off position as soon as I kill it. This prevents the overflow which in most cases only happens when you stop the engine. Those pitcok valve have

[Curtis Underwood]

For some reason it posted before i finishe the comment and would not allow me to edit. So here is the finished comment. Those 4 wheelers all have issues with the carb needle valves which shut of the fuel to the carburetor when the carburetor bowl is full. Since you stated it was leaking from the carburetor overflow then the needle valve is not cutting it completely off. This can and does cause more problems then just fuel leaking out on the floor. It can flow back into the engine and into the oil through the rings. If this happens it will cause damage to the cylinders, main bearing and valve seals( you need to check oil and smell of it to see if oil has fuel in it). The vibration of running motor will usually cause the needle to close this is the reason they don't usually leak while running. But if you see them leaking while engine is running then the carb has to be cleaned or rebuilt.
Mine leaks by the needle but I trun the pitcock valve to the off position as soon as I kill it. This prevents the overflow which in most cases only happens when you stop the engine. Those pitcok valve have orings in them that do go bad and will allow fuel to pass the pitcock. To check to see if your pitcock valve is working correctly turn it to off position and disconect fuel line to carburetor. If fuel continuously runs out, the pitcock valve is bad so you need to replace it.
I have replaced carburetors on several machines because of this issue. The problem is those Chinese carburetors which is sold online and sold by OEMs are not very good. You might get one out of 3 that does not start leaking by the needle either as soon as it is put on or with in a week. Cleaning them some times will stop issue for a month or two.