2000 Honda 450 foreman

Wanted to ask and get some advice.

While hunting with my son couple weeks ago, we had filled the gas tank with ethanol free gas. We had rode the four wheeler around a bit, but not enough to empty the tank.
Went to crank it the next morning and it didn't want to start, I switched it to reserve tank and it fired right up.

When we got back to camp I started looking it over and saw around the carburetor, it looked very shiny and clean.
Started really smelling gas as well.
Then I saw it dripping. It had dripped out nearly a full tank of gas overnight.

Looks as if possibly the float valve is sticking.

Do I need to just rebuild the carburetor or can I rebuild the float valve?

Only problem I've ever had with this four wheeler is an occasional spark plug.

Thanks in Advance!

Better check the oil. If your carb drain tube was blocked, then it can according to the carb oreintation, drain into the crankcase. Sometimes the drain tube gets full of dirt or burns itself flat touching something. It could be your tank to carb hose gone bad. The carb can usually just be cleaned out good. Be careful with the float bowl tang that holds the needle. It governs the float bowl height. However, a rebuild kit, cheap, since it's already off to be cleaned????? You will get several parts that really don't need replacing. The float needle often times does not seat correctly, just needs cleaning. Sometimes the needle seat fit is worn and needs replacing..... not often though. Try tapping the
side of the carb with something like a big screwdriver. And get the carb drain tube fixed. If the float hangs up and leaks, it should be coming out the drain tube at one of the lowest points of the bike. I may be assuming wrong, yours may not be dripping around the carb, however your mention of it being shiny sounds like around the carb rather than the drain tube

My 1988 fourtrax does this during cold weather. 1oz sea foam per gallon stops it. Probably sticking float needle as previously mentioned. Could also be a sticking enrichment valve

As stated above it could be a worn or sticking float valve. Or it could be trash not letting it seal properly. If you find dirt/rust/trash in the carb make sure you check your gas can and clean as needed. Pretty common to get dirty gas cans after a few years and it doesn't take much to cause problems. Of course if there's trash in the carb you need to clean out the gas tank too, an inline fuel filter is a good idea in any case.

As also already said, check for gas in the oil and change oil and filter if you smell gas or the oil level is high.

You've probably already figured it out but you should always turn the gas off every time you stop the engine so if there is a problem it won't dump the whole gas tank on the ground, or even worse in your garage.