You know what this thread is missing? Some pin moving pics. I joined the club last weekend and finally got it home and setup. Only 254 plays, version 1.02 code. The garage shot shoots it SDTM most of the time. Tweaked it out of level a bit, but that didn't help much. The service bulletins mention it and shows that I need to update the software. Some previous owner installed 4 smd LED bulbs that shine straight up for GI lighting - not good. I read through this entire thread to try to learn what I could. Good info. My list is as follows:

1. Buy the updated EPROMs for CPU, voice, music, video, etc. from Marcos and hope those are easy to change out.
2. Fix the Garage VUK if still necessary (I don't understand how some people use mylar in the scoop to fix it).

*** If I don't like the game at this point - sell it. I have yet to play a good playing NASCAR at a show with everything working, but want to like it ***

3. Replace GI LED bulbs with 2smd frosted bulbs
4. If I like the look, get the LEDOCD board - yes MustangPaul
5. Investigate if any cliffys or mantis protectors can be installed - anybody know?

*** If this is going to turn into a keeper … ***

6. Get the rpm gage and add something electronically to make it slowly go up and down (maybe a capacitor & ???) like a electronic snubber valve. I have someone looking into that.
7. NVRAM - easy plug in and no soldering for this game I read
8. Bug the crap out of Soapman for the test car decals (join with me please) - those look fantastic!
9. Crowd side blades - where can I get them? I can't find them.
10. If it is a definite keeper - Pinsound. Anyone do that yet? Changing some sounds and music would probably be a good upgrade.
11. If #10, then upgrade speakers and connect to a sub. I've read it's not worth it otherwise.

I want and hope this game works out to be great!

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I'll have to see if Marco's knows that answer. Only the CPU ROM is labeled with 1.02 (and verified through the "non-fast" boot by holding the right flipper down).

Forgot that one - thanks ...
12. Get ramp side protectors and attempt to make the ones that are unobtainable.

PM sent … thanks!

Let us know how it works out.

No version number on the sound ROMs, but the date on them of 8/5/05 is prior to the CPU date with version 1.02, so it looks like I need to bite the bullet and replace them all.

Hey Grumpy! Thanks. It's worth a shot to try that especially if people think that the sound ROMs were never updated. I will place the order tomorrow.

These are what my ROMs look like currently (excluding the video one)

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I saw that you posted that earlier in the thread. No cracks or holes in either ramp yet. That's on my list. Gotta stop at Home Depot. I'm surprised that Marcos doesn't sell those (not in stock).

I saw that someone did that with a die cast car installed. I'll add that to my Home Depot list. That would prolong the looks of the decal that Soapman will get to me. A good combo.

Great! My wife was just playing NASCAR tonight and complaining about that again. Interesting solution. Hopefully mine has enough "slop" in the playfield opening to move that enough (without binding) to solve that problem. Thanks a bunch for that new tip!

Is this bracket braking on the solenoid to hold the garage mechanism up a common issue. It was working just fine last night. I installed the new roms this morning and the first play on default settings it broke. Is there a setting to turn that down? Also the hauler solenoid to kick it down the ramp isn't strong enough now and the ball gets stuck there an can't find it. Gonna have to see if I can tweak that too after I find and install the other new bracket. Argh!

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Yep - appears to be a "known" problem listed in a Stern service bulletin. I saw that bulletin when I bought the pin, but the kit includes older software on the ROMs. Marcos has a newer beefier bracket that I can buy separate to fix the known problem. Maybe it was just a coincidence, or maybe newer software than what I had (1.04, but showed 1.02 on screen) would increase that solenoid power and cause the bracket to brake. Unsure, but have the bracket on order now. Another $56 bucks bites the dust … that's pinball.

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.

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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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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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 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.

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

+1

I finally got the side blades installed today. This is what the generic crowd blades look like installed.
I installed the tach mod too. The instructions say that it would red line with the middle drop target down and yep ... that's what it does. I wonder why the single drop target has anything to do with it.

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I got mine last year at MGC. I inquired then with Cliff and he said that there is interest and it's on his list to make them for all of the holes. Send him an email and ask ... and tell him alot of us are interested ... and report back please.

If you have a template for that metal protector piece, you could sell those. Or send the template to me please.

Okay NASCAR/Dale Jr/Grand Prix owners, vote and represent for a NASCAR color DMD!

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/-2020-which-colordmds-do-you-want-poll-included

Looks like they are being gutted. Are you going to be selling parts? Or are you going to make these NASCAR pinballs great again?

And the service bulletin items ... guessing those weren't done.

https://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/502-5043-86
There's a couple combined.
There is a beefy bracket replacement. If you wait until it breaks, 1 or 2 other things will break too. That happened to me.

I think Stern is "supposed to" be listing them on the website with their manual downloads under support. I didn't run across the bracket one on Marcos until mine broke. So that's a good question on if the complete list of service bulletins for Stern pins is available someplace else (too).

I've been hearing of this uprising of some of the wives ... must be the covid isolation that is getting more wives interested. My wife wont let me sell anything. A couple of years ago she was okay with a long term plan to fill up a room and then just rotate in new/different pins. Instead, I'll be knocking down another wall in the basement in a month or two to make more room. Gosh darn.

I'm ordering a colorDMD for it this weekend. I guess I will need to keep this pin at least another year to make it worth while.

[see my post above]

It stops for with a car blocking for ball lock.

I need to decide if I want to put these race used NASCAR lug nuts from Roush Racing somewhere in my pin. Way out of scale, but pretty cool keepsake.

By the way ... I started to program a shaker with an arduino a couple of years ago, and then life and other pins distracted me. I might have to finish programing that this summer... when it's raining outside.

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That could work too. I was also going to trigger addressable LED lights. One idea was to have lights like pinstadium and have a light "bullet" following the ball around the outside loop. I have everything, but lost interest when new pins showed up. I might drop the programmable lights idea and stick with just the shaker. Give it a little shake each loop like the car is driving by triggered by the magnet. Sounds like you might be able to do that with your solution as well with the sound file. Interesting stuff...

There's a Stern bulletin about a fix for the horizontal solenoid on that mechanism. I had similar symptoms when my bracket broke that is in the bulletin. I bought the bulletin fix kit from Marco probably about 5 years ago. Hunt for that bulletin. It has photos for what you need to look for. I can look up the bulletin number when I get home if you don't find it.