'76 cb550 noise

[7aliveatlast7]

Out of the blue today my cb550 started running and sounding strange. I rode it to my parents and it was doing great. The trip home was a different story, and I have no clue what happened between trips. I thought maybe a cylinder wasn't firing, but I let the headers warm up, sprayed them all with water, and each steamed it immediately, so they're all firing. The exhaust did not sound that punctuated before, and then there's that noise by the side cover that sounds kinda like a locomotive...any ideas?

http://youtu.be/l5LpH47IgtA

 

[Tune-A-Fish]

Sounds like the starter clutch is engaged is the cover over the starter hot?

 

[7aliveatlast7]

I'll have to check. What would cause it to not disengage as it should?

 

[7aliveatlast7]

Not getting much interest here, but I'll keep trying. Im fairly certain the bike is not firing on at least one cylinder. When it's running, if I pull the plug wire on cylinder 1 or 4, there is no change in how the bike runs. Pulling 2 or 3 kills the motor, so they're fine. However, I checked spark plug 1 and 4 touching them to the motor while I kick the bike over, and they're both giving me nice blue sparks, so they're firing after all. What could be my problem if 1 and 4 are firing, yet pulling them while the bike is running doesn't cause it to run any worse?

I should add that carb 4 has been overflowing like crazy, which started right around the time the bike began to run and sound weird. Something goat related no doubt, so I thought maybe that was flooding the cylinder and impeding spark in there somehow. But now that I found out the bike runs the same with plug 1 pulled, I'm wondering if the overflow on carb 4 and the problem with cylinder 4 are related or just coincidental.

Hope that doesn't sound too confusing, I tried to explain it as best I could.