Runaway Idle

That is what I was thinking as well. I'm just at a loss on how to approach this issues I've been rebuilding this bike for a year now and I feel like half of it has been chasing this RPM issue in circles. I have had people say I should go to velocity stacks for a less turbulent air flow through the carbs, try and find a stock air box, filter and boots, that I should get the carbs from the 90's ZR750. I'm just not sure and don't want to keep throwing money at it blindly. 

You are absolutely right to resist the temptation to throw money at it (it rarely solves the issue) you could buy a cheap vacuum pump from Amazon to test your gauges. A few pumps and it should hold a vacuum 

I may just do that, I'm hoping to figure it out soon so I can ride it more than around the block!

As an alternative testing measure you could cap three of the carb vacuum ports and hook one of the vacuum gauges to the open port and start the engine. If there is no runaway rpm, unplug that gauge and plug in the next one. Testing each one individually may reveal a leaky one.
Also, if one of the adjusters is screwed in much farther than the other three, that may indicate a leak.

So I may have figured out my issue, my idle circuit is just critically lean still. I have the stock #35 idle jet and I tried a method I read about and taped up roughly 30% of each of my pod filters surface area and the bike ran significantly better so I'm going to try a #42 idle jet and see how the bike responds. 

Michi wrote:

Check again for intake leaks. To find one, you'll need to waste a lot of spray. Constant directed blast at suspected leak locations while the bike is idling.

Something I found on my GPZ550 restoration that you might look at is the fit between the intake boot from the carb to the head.  On mine I actually found a significant gap on two and small ones on the others.  They all warped or dry rotted to the point of leaking.  So I squared them using a flat surface and sanded the mating surface until there were no more air leaks.  To check shine a flash light into the carb side with the lights outs IE: the dark.  The light will shine through where there are gaps.  This made a huge difference on tuning and idle.   Really everything needs to be tight and right before they run right.  

577nitro-