Float heights and their weirdness

[ride92]

So I'm putting back together the carbs off the '96 that I have and am at the point of putting new needle valves in a setting the float height. As I'm doing this I am finding that all the float heights are set very high and out of spec with the new needle valves, most are in the 12mm-14mm range above the mating surface. But the weird thing is, is that the tangs all measured about 6mm spread on them. I was reading thru the posts concerning float height and someone said that the tang distance almost corresponds 1:1 with fuel level below the line on the US carbs. Why am I seeing the float heights so high? It seems like I am having to bend them quite a bit to get them down to 6.2-8.2mm spec the FSM says. I'll double check them with the wet method when they go back on the bike but it just seems strange that they are so high. The junk set of carbs I have also have really high floats, and the set I'm working on looked like no one had been in them before. Curious as to your thoughts?