That looks great! as far as the bash toy mod, is that difficult to do or is it pretty easy? That would be a longer term mod for me but I was thinking about it.

Not bad to do and works great, I also moved the bracket forward slightly so you can use a full (not cut) pop bumper cap like Stern installed from the factory.

Very nice! Is the mod the same as the one in the big thread about it or is there some place specific I can get the necessary components to do it?

Most of it is from that thread, I got the car from Menards for a few dollars, I welded up the original holes in the bracket and drilled new ones, you can see where the old holes were in the picture.

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Drill a hole through the plastic underneath the car and use a small self tapping screw into the bottoms of the cars. They won't go anywhere, I've had mine attached like that for years and never moved.

Very cool! Appreciate the pictures showing some of the process

Joined the club yesterday with a Dale jr

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Is the Dale jr game code and the nascar game code the same? I noticed after a few plays the test car does not move down during game play.

Service the assembly. The code is the same.

Spent some going over the test car. All switches in switch test mode check good. Lubrication was applied to the bracket so the car can easily slide up and down. I also changed the coil stop bracket for coil that would allow the car to go down. Only thing I find odd is when I start a game or power on the game you can see and hear the coil that makes the test car travel up and down you only see the coil trying to push the car in a upward position. When I start a game the car is never level with the playfield. If I turn the game off and manually move the car level to the playfield and power the game on you watch the car going up and it stays up. I feel like it's software or that up and down coild is wired backwards.

I'd double check that you have the correct coil stop part in there. If you turn off the game and release the catch so that the garage drops down it should be flush with the playfield. The garage just uses gravity to lower itself, so there has to be something not fitted correctly or an incorrect part somewhere.

Here’s what it should look like. That’s before I rebuilt it, but it functioned for the most part.

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If I release that latch with the game turned off the test will travel down easily. When I power the game on the test car pops up and never travels down again during game play.

Here is a photo of mine test car assembly. This game was HMO and it has less than 1700 plays on it. Only thing I see differently is the coil that was push the test car up.

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I want to thank PinJim for posting a photo!!!! I matched the position of the coil that pushes that test car up and down and now the test car moves up and down in the playfield here is a photo of it move down in the playfield.

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I love easy fixes!

Congrats.

Next up is to wax the playfield install titan rings and replace the test car.

And install comet LEDS

Anyone own a Dale jr with ROM code of 5.0? I can't find any information on the web on this code.

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So I emailed Stern about the game code on Dale jr with a screen shot of my game and this was their response. Stern and Pinside should update their website with this information from tech support...

Hi Phillip,

I had to check with the original engineering team for this, due to the age of the game I don't have a ton of information off hand.
Nascar and Dale Jr are essentially the same game, but the callouts and screen graphics are different to match the different theme.

It looks 5.0 is the correct version for your game.

I can confirm my Dale Jr also has version 5.00 so it definitely is the latest version since normal NASCAR code only goes up to version 4.50. In other news I have a ColorDMD on the way and it should be here by next week. I'll have to post some pics of it once I install it!

Thanks for posting. Pinside and Stern should update their website because of the code. Looking forward to see your ColorDMD installed.

Does the Dale Jr version use 5 balls? Reason I ask is because I had a decal set for Dale Jr and it had an "Install 5 Balls" sticker (for under the lockdown bar). Regular NASCAR has 4 balls.
If so, I wonder if you can enable a 5-ball multiball mode on NASCAR if you install the Dale code. You may have to install another switch/opto in the trough if it's not already there.

Mine pin says install 4 balls. If you would like to see a photo of the lockdown receiver can take one. The one I purchased has been hardly used from the original owner.

Thanks for checking. I wonder if the 5-ball was just an error in the decal sheet or they had originally planned to do something extra for the Dale Jr version.

Here is the photo of my Dale jr number of balls decal.

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Anyone ever had their game play normally, but the display just says "Stern Pinball" the whole time? Weird.

Not had mine that long. Keep us posted on what you find.

Got my colorDMD installed today. Here's a quick pic. I can't decide what mode I like the most but right now it's on DOTXL. It's also not the clearest picture but thought some would like to see it.

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I decided my Nascar/Talladega needed a 'Pit Row'

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Looks great! I have a similar pit road scene with Dale Sr. I already have some diecasts in my dale jr but that looks nice!

Did you do anything else to make it a bit Taledega Nights? I'm looking into changing the backglass and I'm curious about pinsound. Any tips or links to other Taledega projects?

Any details on these?

So far I have done the translight, custom cards, and a photo sticker over test car plastic. I can send you a pm with the pinsider who helped make the translight for me.

As for the custom pinbrowser sound modifications-I may need some assistance. I can manage pinbrowser for Spike games but games with ROM are a whole different story. Need some help from anyone who has the time and skills to do ROM's for Talladega Nights re-theme. If anyone has the time or skills for this please let me know

So far the only thing would be to jam a pinsound board in it. I think...

Purchased a 1:43 Dale jr car. It's longer than the test car. I will install and see how it works out.

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Getting the car installed without it hitting the post near the front of the car was not bad but the rear of the car sticks into the lane more than I would care for. I used carbon black removable coating for the bracket that holds the car and post at the front of the car. I used a 3/8 titan post rubber for the post.

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Have been an owner about 2 weeks. Added NVRAM, 5.25 speakers and new speaker and display box with Red acrylic. Not completely finished with speaker yet. Had to wrap it up and race to work.

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Nice job on the speaker panel. I'm doing a top side tear down on mine because it was long overdue for replacement rubbers and post sleeves. Getting that ramp out is a pain. I have a few changes I will be doing. I will share with the group.

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Where did you get the 1/43 scale car..
I'm 15 laps (year) down and coming out of the pits.Working on this car to win a championship. I almost said Shake and Bake baby.

ebay.com link: itm

Thanks, Ordered

Your welcome

Hey, so I need a bit of help in determining what's happening with my machine. So everything has been working 100% no problems, however now when I start any of the mode multiballs (Happy Hour, Hauler Ride, etc.) the auto launcher doesn't launch right away and takes a bit to actually launch the ball. It used to launch the ball once a ball was put into the shooter lane but now it's not.

I also don't know if it's related to this issue but the Pit Road entry takes a few moments to open after locking a ball now as well. I sit there and hole the left flipper for a few seconds then once it opens I can launch the ball and it works no problem, but I used to be able to open it right away after locking the ball. I'm not sure if they are related.

Switch and coil tests all checked out no issues, so I'm just kinda confused as to how to diagnose this and was wondering if any of ya'll had a clue.

Issue found: It's the switch in the shooter lane that sometimes isn't activating just due to the wire, need to bend it a little to get it back to 100% but that fixes it after testing.

Removed "Start" button on lockdown and put it on coin door.
Lockdown bar here: https://www.pinballlife.com/sternsegadata-east-black-front-molding-lockdown-bar-no-tournament-button-hole.html
And start button here:
https://www.pinballlife.com/williamsballystern-red-start-button.html

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I also put new Black legs on too. Just forget to take and post pictures.
Right now it's cut out of wood with a laser and painted black until I get some black Acrylic.

Are dale cabs not drilled for a start button on the left of the coin dr?

I was going to ask the same thing. I don't know why this is even needed.