Toilet Constantly Running...Now Draining

[DIYER WANNABE]

For the past week or so our toilet has been sweating pretty bad. Even with the air conditioner on. Sounds like it was running too, so I pulled the top off to see if I could find out what was wrong. It seemed like when I pulled the float pipe/ball up, it would quit running. Not really knowing what to do, I spoke with my dad and he said to try to bend the float pipe/ball up a bit. After trying that out, now it seems the water is draining out of the tank. Not sure what's going on here....Does the fill valve/cup piece need to be replaced? At a loss. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks!

[HayZee518]

toilet

what make is the toilet valve?
is there a float at the end of a brass rod or is the float an inverted cup that slides on the inlet body.