You hear nothing while recording or you get no audio at all recorded? If it's the former you need to engage the "monitor input" button on the track.
The FP iirc only has analog direct monitoring so you need to route the digital audio input through your daw.
Reaper is set to 24 bit?
I have a firepod and went through the same thing as you. There was a driver that "upgraded" the firepod to be able to daisy chain them together. It disabled the SPDIF. The workaround that works for me is. Unplug the Spdif in on the firepod, go into the firepod control software and switch to clock source internal. Give it a a few seconds then switch to clock source SPDIF plug in your cable. Give it a few seconds then open your recording software. It works, but every time you have to go through these steps.
Give it a try remember to do this before you open your recording software, or it won't work.
Same here 
I tried your workaround sledge, it works but it's REALLY annoying to do that each time.
No permanent solution ?
I've heard that you can send your firepod in, and they can put an older firmware on it. I've just gotten used to the Mexican hat dance to get it working. It's a pain but keeps me from throwing out a decent interface.
