OK, I just went to the 5th/last slot setting from the but end of the stage 1 needles and she screams from dead stop to red line at WOT with NO hesitation at all. Even with a slow pull all the way up is clean and hard. I have tried it cold and full operating temp. The 5500 blues are gone!!!!!!!
Ride314,
First off, make SURE that all of your carbs are CLEAN and all of the tiny passage ways are blown out with compressed air or you can use cans of carb cleaner, but carb cleaner can get expensive. The first time I cleaned my carbs, I went though about 12 cans of carb cleaner at $3 a pop.
Very important........After carbs are clean, ensure float levels are set. I know everyone has their own distance settings for float levels, but there is only one way to get them perfect. Use gas and get the no shit level height. I am going to write up a thread with some pics and instructions on how to measure your float height with gas MacGyver style when I get time. In the mean time, for my carbs after I set the float levels perfect with the gas set up, I measured the distance of each one. One was dead on at 16mm, one was at 16.3mm, another at 16.4mm, and the last was at 15.8mm. So pretty much around 16mm will get you close to perfect. You will never know if they are perfect until you use the gas method. If you want a leaner mixture, go to 17mm and for a more rich mixture, go to 15mm.
After your floats are set and your carbs are assembled, get them on the bike and sync them. There are great threads on carb rebuild and carb syncing on here. Just look in the carb section.
If you have done all of this and you are sure of your cleanliness and float levels, than I suggest getting a set of adjustable stage 1 needles or buying some washers to shim the stick needles to the correct depth and get rid of your 5500 RPM blues. Don't worry about the main jets unless you have problems from 7500 and above. It sounds like you have the correct ones installed.
Before you start tearing apart the carbs again changing out gaskets and brass, try the shimming or new stage 1 needles. The adjustable stage 1 needles will take the shimming out of the picture.
If you are unsure of how to do any of this, just ask and I assure you someone will help you out. Just to warn you, you might have to use a bunch of shim washers to get to the correct needle depth. Let me know if I have left anything out.......D