Here are some comparison pics of the weak broken bracket to the beefier fixed design bracket in the Stern Service Bulletin.

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The last pic shows the bracket thickness difference.

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New bracket installed, but the garage up solenoid #14 is not working. A DVM meter shows no voltage going to the solenoid. No voltage going to the under playfield connector for the solenoid. Doing the "draw" option from the diagnostic menu, it shows fuse F6 feeds it. (???) If that's true, I checked fuse 6 and it ohms out ok and doesn't look blown. I put the DVM across the fuse and no voltage was going through it. Yes the coin door was closed. The other garage solenoids were working. With the bracket braking and the (other) up/down solenoid cycling a few times when it broke before faulting out, what could have gone wrong? I tried the reset button on the board, but that did not help. Any guesses? Ugh! I played a shortened game just to see if everything else was working and it was.

WOW! That will NEVER break. Thanks for posting. A trace on the back of the MPU?

I'm lost when it comes to the boards. Might need to call in a pinball repair dude if it's something on the board. One of the black square things with the cooper loop sticking out is green. Just normal cooper discolor?

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That's a transistor and it's probably shot, it's not supposed to be green. I wonder what the back of the board looks like. That board is gonna need some work. The board comes off easy just make sure you mark each connector and where it goes when you unplug them. Take pictures too or draw a diagram to be sure. It may look difficult but it's not.

You definitely need to swap that transistor out before it becomes viral and infects the entire board. It's a bit odd the way it corroded on you. Definitely examine the rest of the board(s) and look for more green fuzzy stuff. It all needs to be cleaned with baking soda/water/isopropyl or whatever you are comfortable with.

I've only had the game for a few weeks, so I don't know the history with it. Clay cfh is one of the best with boards and lives within 10 minutes of me, so I'll email him later today my story and sequence of events that happened with some pics and get some advice and/or repair work if he has the time. I see that Marcos has a revised driver board, so maybe there are/were problems with this board anyway(?), but man ... $430 is a big hit. The Marcos description is "Updated I/O Power Driver Board Revision "G"". I'll have to see if I can find the revision number on my board.

No reason to think about a new board unless ther is something major hiding underneath. That’s an easy fix on a board designed to be repaired.

What he said. You have to take the board off to give it to Clay so take it off and snap some pictures of the back for us so we can see.

Will do, but first I want to see if Clay wants to look at it as is. With the series of events, it just seems odd to me that all of this happened at once. Everything was working a few weeks ago. Changed the ROMs to the latest software version from Marcos, first ball the garage latch solenoid bracket broke, changed the bracket to the new design, then the garage up-kicker wont work with likely board issues (but could have been caused when the bracket broke from a secondary electronic failure). If the events are related, then I'd advise for all to put the new bracket design from the Stern service bulletin on before it breaks on you. Still TBD of course. If they are not related, then I could get the board fixed, installed, and the same board issue might happen if the board issue was caused by something under the playfield. Possible, but not likely ... I just want Clay's opinion knowing the entire story before I do anything more. Under the playfield, all I did was swap out the bracket.

This is your problem, this must be fixed first.

Voltage doesn't flow, current flows. Voltage is present or it isn't. So with DMM set to DC volts and black lead stuck under the ground braid, use the red lead to test for voltage. First check both sides of the fuse, if present on one side then the fuse is bad.
Then check the coil for voltage on both lugs. If only present on one lug the coil is bad.

Oh Yeah don't mess with people from HELL.

Solenoid #14 is also transistor #14. The corroded transistor is #5 and is another issue all together.

If you look at page 8 of the manual, follow solenoid #14 to the right and it shows a separate fuse for the garage coils. Its a 3 amp fuse mounted under the playfield to the left of the garage. This most likely blew when the bracket broke and the coil shorted out.

Thats one fuse that I did not check. No continuity on the Ohm meter. Running down to see if I can find 3A fuses at the hardware store. Might as well try another fuse before assuming that the solenoid is gone too. That solenoid wasn't loose, but maybe overheated from going up and down about 8 times repetitively withoutthe latch working.

GRUMPY … now I owe you a few drinks or a dinner (for help with this and the F14). That fuse solved "that" problem. I played 5 games and kept making the garage go up and down and it's working just fine now.

If you don't have the bracket fix, get it before it breaks. The software update was a big improvement to playability in little ways. The garage ejects now mostly go to the left flipper or the bottom of the left sling. Some stuff out of Stern mentioned that it would improve the STDM the majority of the time. It only went down the middle twice and I have to see if it is one particular mode that it is common on. It gave some ball saves with the auto-launch misfires. There were some ball saves when it hits the test car and goes SDTM in some situations. It's much more enjoyable to play. However … with the new code, the hauler is too weak now, so I'll have to see if there is some adjustment for that - there wasn't any problem before the update. I wanted to make sure the problem(s) could be fixed, and that the updated code could make the game more playable before making a decision on keeping it. Now I can concentrate on ordering and changing rubbers, cleaning, waxing, ramp protectors, etc.. Importantly with priority, I need to investigate the cooper corrosion on the transistor. Just clean it and see what happens?

*** cliffys! ***
Note that I contacted Cliff to see if he had any cliffys for the holes, presuming that he did not and I would beg anyway. He said that he did have an empty NASCAR playfield now and that cliffys for it are on his "list of things to do". He said he has had inquiries for them. He can't work on the ramp protectors because he doesn't have a populated playfield. I encourage all interested owners to contact Cliff to put your name (with mine) on the wait/want list to show the interest in the hole cliffys. This is our chance. When I contacted Mantis people it was just a "No current plans" answer.

I noticed the same thing with mine after the upgrade. Try replacing the coil sleeve to see if that is enough to fix it.

Use a Q tip dipped into a mixture water and 10 % baking soda and wash off Q-5 and the board around it. Do this a few times and then rinse with 97% alcohol a few times. Then let dry for an hour before turning on the power.

I contact him about ramp protectors back when I had this machine. He was more than willing to do them up, just needed a template to work from. Marco has them, but they are stupid expensive. Like $60+ bucks.

https://www.marcospecialties.com/control/keywordsearch?SEARCH_STRING=nascar+ramp

Looks like part 545-5076-01 ... worth a try for 99 cents.

Thanks! I'll try that.

The right ramp ones aren't in stock and people have told me that they never are. The one that people are telling me is important is 502-5041-47 on the right ramp right side, which would be $75 if they ever had them in stock. I'll have to make a paper template, then find some thin stainless sheet material and make one. I have aluminum sheeting, but that would likely get pulverized. GRUMPY recommended stainless. Cliff said that he usually has problems getting local people with a machine to work with him for these kinds of things. That's unfortunate for all of us.

Does anyone know what the feature adjustment 29 - 30 track adjust are? Or the features 31-35 proprietary are? Just wondering if those could be individual coil strengths.

Posted my Dale Jr. in the marketplace for anyone interested. Mainly looking for a trade towards a Transformers (Pro) and a some others on my list:

Transformers (Pro)
Addams Family
Wrestlemania (Pro)
Avengers (Pro)
The Walking Dead (Pro)
Game of Thrones (Pro)
Star Wars (Pro)
Monopoly
Rollercoaster Tycoon
Family Guy
Simpsons Pinball Party
Ripley's Believe it or Not
Elvis
Earthshaker
Fire
Sopranos
Spiderman (Vault)
Wheel of Fortune
Batman (Stern)
CSI
Iron Man

Garage was binding on the release where it turns square to go thru the side of the garage mech.
Greased it up for now. Will look for a stronger spring at the swap meet.

i am joining the club! i have had my nascar for 4 years but i just haven't joined the club. but here i am

my garage is stuck open, it registers hits and works normal but it doesn't go down. bad switch? lose wire? i heard i could be the bracket and i seen replacements on marco but not sure if i need one. if anyone can help that would be great!

My problem was the opposite and it wouldn't stay up. (lubed where the side coil plunger goes through the garage bracket)
Try the nascar (car) test mode. That should identify the area.
Also try running the test with the playfield up and watch what's happening.
Could also be the main lift garage coil. I have not seen too may that have the 'stock' coil. It does get alot of use. Also not a cheap coil for the stock stern replacement.
Another early easy check is the garage bushings. (2 screws on the left side of the garage).

Welcome to the club.....finally.

alright thanks i will try it out and check all the switches on the car. i had a problem with those before.

Joined the Nascar club. What a fun, cool game with a lot of ball tricks. I ordered an LED OCD board last night and I can tell that's going to make a huge difference with the inserts. There are inexpensive, ghosting, white LEDs in the inserts and it looks awful due to flickering and lack of lighting effects.

I swapped over my Pinstadium kit last night and it looks terrific. I mainly play in a dark room, so I prefer the playfield well lit and Nascar really benefits from the lighting. The colors pop on the playfield and it's great to clearly follow the ball(s).

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I just listed a Nascar in the Milwaukee, WI area. Let me know if you'd like to be in the club!

SOLD!

Machine - For Sale

Nascar Archived

Used - shows wear but 100% working and clean - “The game is in nice condition and is fully working. I cleaned and waxed the playfield, replaced all of the playfield rubber, put in four new pinballs, and installed the most recent...”

2018-10-27

Muskego, WI

egyptrus

2,800

Archived after: 7 days

Viewed: 132 times

Status: Sold (amount private)

Contributed to Pinside

Got positive feedback

Welcome to the club, I put the OCD board in when I got mine and it makes a WORLD of difference even with the right out of the box settings.

Excellent! Did you keep the stock settings or make changes?

Stock settings right out of the box.

So. Yeah. An LED OCD board is a must for Nascar. Holy cow! What an incredible difference with the LEDs acting like normal bulbs for all the cool effects, fading and sweeps to properly display.

I can see the handful of non-ghosting LEDs I installed, because those are the only ones showing flickering. All my other LEDs are old, flat top, ghosting LEDs and they work perfectly.

Seriously, before the LED OCD, it looked like every damn insert was lit due to the crazy flickering. Many times I wasn't sure if an insert was legit lit or not.

Value wise, the LED OCD makes perfect sense in Nascar due to how many insert bulbs there are. Buy xx amount of non-ghosting LEDs and you're close to the cost of the board and still don't have the great effects.

Yeah it's great and it works best with regular leds. If you really want to see great pf inserts get the 2 smd clear dome white leds like the ones in ST or Mustang. If the underside of the inserts are clean the facets sparkle like a new Stern. Don't even think of color matching the inserts. I put white Leg Lights and a white shooter housing on mine and I think it looks great. Look how my clear leg bolt washers light up to, much better in real life though.
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Interesting … I have a big mix of bulb styles on mine that I want to communize. So … I want the ghosting ones if I go LED OCD? They will dim, but the non-ghosting ones will not? Wouldn't have thought of that. Glad there wasn't any good deals on bulbs at Expo then.

You want the regular led's not the non ghosting. The non ghosting circuitry in the bulbs confuses the OCD board.

I will back up Paul on this. Non-ghosting is the way to go. If you still get flickering in the odd bulb then you can tweak the settings to eliminate it. I have had 3 LED OCD boards and only ever saw flickering on 1 LED in my F-14. A simple tweak and no more flicker. For reference, I was using 1SMD bulbs from Comet.

Agreed on not trying to color match the inserts - though I like green for the jackpot inserts, looks way better than yellow.

Has anyone used pinblade type artwork on cabinet sides? I have another set of mirror blades but I think side artwork would look much nicer and could tie the entire game together.

I ordered some from Pinball Pro at Expo, but still haven't received them. I order the crowd version. Thanks for reminding me to bug them.

I would have to agree with this as well. I tried colour matching the LEDs and I think the previous owner of the pin swapped some of them out too, but the yellows and the inserts in general are different from other inserts I've seen and tend to look under or over-saturated.

MustangPaul those white leg lights look great. I hope I get to see them IRL some day.

My wife took notice of the pinblade art on the Batman 66 we played on the weekend.
I am still on the fence for pinblades.
Was thinking mirror for Nascar to get all that led reflection.
Just not a real priority. Would rather have my $ ready for a color dmd (when it happens?!?).

Are these the ones you ordered? I didn't see them listed on Pinball Pro's site. Is there another version available besides the crowd? I think the crowd looks really good and was what I was picturing along the sides.

https://www.retrorefurbs.com/shop/nascar-pinball-sideblades/

I haven't seen the ones in the link ... not sure how they would look on the pin if the lower track would be visible behind some of the plastics, but they look pretty good. The ones I ordered were the ones found on this search link from Tilt Graphics https://www.tiltgraphicsinc.com/nascar I ordered the "Generic Crowd" ones. There is a checkered flag kind of pattern there too, but I liked the crowd better ... like a Bristol track kind of thing.

I would have to see the generic crowd ones installed before having an opinion of them. That shifter knob looks cool. Not $110 cool, but cool. My OCD would constantly be rotating the plunger to keep it aligned properly. I could never have a non-symmetrical plunger.

I have that plunger installed (from a previous owner) and I know what you mean about the OCD. When I have a party and I am just walking around checking things, I keep going over after someone plays it and twist it straight so that it doesn't look odd.

Exactly what I would be doing. It needs to be keyed or something so it doesn't rotate.

Thanks and It would be great to have you over and play in my 2 gamerooms.

I wanted mirror blades for mine but I just don't have the clearance.

I have the Hurst shifter knob and it doesn't bother me if it's not aligned.

Did anyone find sling and out lane plastic protectors (besides the fender washers)?