Plugged pilot

You might want to inspect your diaphragms very closely for pinholes or cracks.  That can cause some erratic behavior and will cause rich condition when given throttle.

EDIT: just saw you have to run 80% choke all the time.  That might mean the pilot circuits are clogged.  Basically it sounds like a total carb teardown.

The bleed pipes and pilot jets on those carbs have itty bitty passages.  You have to remove those parts and hold them up to the light to make sure the passages are open.  A full teardown is always best in my view.  Problem with that is you have to remove the choke linkage and that can be fiddly to reassemble.  I've done a number of sets of those carbs and I know the parts/linkages well, but the first time can be a time consuming process.  Red loctite on the butterfly valve screws is highly recommended.  I do that and I also swedge the end of the screw to be sure the screws don't come lose.  

I don't want to discount the advice by just saying i did that, but with all the issues with this bike I've been anal about being thorough and i saw every single pathway in the carbs yesterday when i did them, including patching 4 holes total in the diaphragms with a gel I've used in the past successfully. I am trying to decide if it is losing spark

It doesn't make sense how it acts because like i said one time it started and ran for almost 5 mins idling. I couldn't rev it, but it would idle. The rest of the time it would either not start or start and run for 5 seconds and cut off. That sounds more to me like an electrical issue, but i changed ignition coils and it didn't change anything. 

Earlier today (it's completely put back together now) i had the airbox off and stuffed the carbs to simulate a filter and thats the time it actually idled for 5 mins.

My grandmother passed away in 1997 and it has sat since. It's in very bad shape, but the insides are solid and the numbers look good. If we can get it settled and running right my uncle is going to restore it. 

Here's earlier today, it looks like everything is fine and idling, but when it shut off, it hasn't started since but a couple 5 second bursts. 

Mainly, listen to the last half of the video and how it acrs like it is shutting off and comes back alive. 

Frankly I've been working on this all week and I've began to hate it. I just want it to run so i can give it back to him and get it out of my shop. 

Thanks so much for posting the pics and uncovering that plug, I figured it was similar to those on our VN750's, and am very glad to know they can be accessed. I'll have to see if the VM26's on my buddy's KZ900 is the same as these 440 carbs.