After reading my last post from a few months ago, I have some corrections in the terminology I used. I learned that the "couplings" I refered to in the last post are called "dampers" and after talking to a trusted source, have come to understand that replacing these with a larger capacity model is a positive thing. Since replacing these, and the pumps, our printer has been running without a hitch for months on end.

Things have been busy here over at the shop. We've picked up a used Mimaki jv3-160sp. THis model is the same as our JV3- 130 only 6 inches longer to make it 60" wide. It ran like complete crap when we got it off the shelf, and therefore it sat, collecting dust for a month, because we didn't want to pay to have a service technician come out to take a look at it. After extensive cleaning, it is up and running jobs now. The black heads aren't performing as well as the other colors. I've ordered a syringe, new bigger dampers and some tubing to go ahead and try to flush the heads from behind. While i'm in there, I plan on replacing the dampers.

The printer was shipped to us in service mode, which opens up a bevy of testing and adjustment options, also, the chirping sound is disabled when cleaning the unit. It's great.
here's a link to a .pdf describing the processes of enabling the service mode from start up. Also included are some extensive head calibration tests that we ran. The machine is up and running great. TO rip and run this printer we decided to get a new quad core intel with 4 gigs of ram. I've heard rumors about being able to run two printers with one rip via installing a 2nd Firewire card. We opted to go for a new computer for flexibility purposes. We may end up moving the computer to a new room. Altough the new quad core is very fast it hasn't been as big of an improvement as I thought it would be for ripping. CS3 suite runs very well. I did some benchmarking tests with photoshop and it blew everything else I read about online out of the water. Including the quad core macs. Rasterlink runs slower during editing and menu type functions compared to our other P4 with 2 gigs of ram.
Next up. flushing the heads through the dampers, and replacing the dampers.

edit: here is a link to a blog describing the differences between the dampers: http://www.digiprint-supplies.com/blog/