What may be happening here is that the springs on the pilot air needles are coil bound when you close the needles and are not fully allowing the needles to seat in the needle orifices so the pilots are actually open.
Interesting idea. If I was to remove the spring and run the needle all the way down would that prove or disprove the theory?
Yes- If you remove the springs and then attempt to adjust the pilot needles and you get an expected response, then you just confirmed that the new springs are either too long or the wire diameter is too large, causing the spring to coil bind before the needles fully seat in the orifices so that the fuel would be closed to transition port #1.
If you get a proper expected response, then somebody's ass needs to be kicked for changing out the original springs with new springs that didn't meet Fit & Form causing a failure of Function
