Terrible Engine Clacking Help!

[RobRoh]

Alright, for those of you who've seen my project (http://xjrider.com/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=4980), I JUST got the bike running and rideable. It was making a strange, harsh TICK every couple of motor rotations or so. Now, I've done some more stuff, had to fix a sticky carb float allowing fuel to spew EVERYWHERE! So now no more fuel leak, awesome. Bike runs, chokes for like 10 seconds and good to go.

Now the problem I'm having is this noise. When you're on the bike and riding it, it's not very noticeable. But when you're standing at the edge of your driveway watching and listening to your buddy go down the street, holy crap it sounds like motor death!

As you progress through the gears, the clacking/metal slapping/gut wrenching sound begins to get slightly louder and more aggressive. When you hit 4th gear it's all over, I got into 4th and shifted right back down into 3rd because I was afraid something was going to shoot out of the motor. At that point the noise gets very fast and loud and you can feel it very well throughout the bike. I'm not sure if it's cutting power because I didn't try to give it any gas lol. When you pull the clutch in and coast it does feel much better and the noise quickly goes away. Again, when I shift back into 3rd gear the noise is still there, but it's much more silent and slow. You can really only hear it at that point rather than feel it. Clutch feels alright sort of, but not the greatest, it's got a nice stiffness to it but you can't really feel the release point. It's kind of just an even pressure. It's still hard to shift through the lower gears. Honestly I hope a clutch is the issue. I was really hoping I wouldn't have any strange problems like this on a bike with such low miles, but there's no telling how the PO treated the bike.

Please ask me any questions so I can further describe to you the sound that is bellowing from my bike. I will try and get a recording of it, hopefully my phone will pick the sound.

Thanks in advance,
Rob