I ordered my new 35mm FCR carbs last monday and was told they would be here in 3 days. Tuesday of this weekend I called to see why they hadn't showed up. I was told that the order "slipped through the cracks" and they would be here on thursday. Basically the order was taken and I was billed but the invoice never got printed so the carbs weren't pulled and shipped to me. Nice huh? It gets better. Today is thursday and guess what.....no carbs. I got home to late to call tonight but I'll be calling tomorrow. I'm really starting to wonder about sparks customer service. You pay almost $800 dollars for a set of carbs that supposedly never get pulled off the shelf for you because someone 'forgot' to print out an invoice. Then your told they'll be there on a certain date and still no carbs? This is BS in my opinion.

 

treeshot- while it is BS for sure, crap happens and it fell on you. Look at the bright side though. FCR's cost HUNDREDS more at other shops. Be prepared for the next round. They are a bugger to get dialed in perfect.[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-sad.gif[/img]

 

I figured they would be and I don't have a whole lot of exp. yet doing jetting so it will probably take me a little longer. I have a hard time telling what fuel circuit is lean/rich but if I had them at least I could be working on it.

 

treeshot- you dial the fcr's on from the bottom up. Sparks should get you pretty close from the start

 

So you dial in the idle circuit first, then needle, then main?

 

i ordered the sparks cr250r reed cage for my 250r, said it would bolt right up. it didn't. way to short. i ordered a sparks 350 power valve motor last yeah and they said it was a year waiting list. i called back this year to check on it and was told he hadn't even started on any of the 350 power valves yet. so not only was he $500 higher on the power valve motor, you will have to wait 2 years to get it. i cancelled the order and bought a eddie sanders 350 power valve. will be ridding it soon.

 

Thats what I thought too Air, thus the question in the previous post. If this is the case I wish sparks would have said something so I didn't waste a bunch of time trying to dial the carbs in the wrong way.

 

Everything i have read on the fcr's said you work from bottom up on throtle position. The mains have less to do with it than the needle choice, air jets etc. I spent hours reading off of various motorcycle web sites on getting them dialed in. I do know that changing the main jet will do little on a driveabilty problem. Ryan (raptorcr has page after page of info on dialing them in. I was heapling and rereading the info. From what i read the needle choice is more critical than the main jet.

 

Guys up here that are stuck on the Sparks stuff are constantly complaining about the time it takes to get anything from them, and their lowsy customer service. One guy I know sends his Sparks cylinder to FTZ for bore jobs, because he know's he'll have it back for the next race. With Sparks, you never know what to expect.......

 

I called around before ordering my FCRs and Sparks was the only place that had them in stock. I paid an extra $30 to have them shipped overnight and they were at my house by 3pm the next day. I called Sparks twice after receiving them to get some jetting help and each time my questions were promptly answered. Due to a hand injury, mine are only roughly dialed in right now but it wasn't too difficult to get them that way. My FCRs ran very well at idle right out of the box, only 1/8 turn out or so on the air screws to get proper "return to idle" response after blipping the throttle. They arrived with the needles on the 4th groove (middle) and I had to drop them to the 2nd groove to get past 2/3 throttle. I confirmed with Sparks that this was the right path to take with FCRs and they agreed. Once I got the needles squared away, I had a little sputter on the top end and a little bog after letting off to shift and then hitting the throttle after full throttle in the previous gear. I called Sparks back to discuss the main jets and learned that mine should have shipped with 142/148 instead of 145/148. I wasn't too upset since I basically asked them to yank them off the shelf and send them overnight, not a lot of time to double check the setup on their end. After changing the mains to 142/148, the top end sputter and post-full throttle bog were gone. Mine are now smooth from idle to top end but I believe there is a little more fine tuning to do at the top end, I don't have the insane top end I had with stock carbs and 190/195, more like it ran with 195/200 - strong but not screaming. Once my hand heals, I plan to do some full throttle plug chops and, depending on plug condition, drop down to 142/145.