I gave 99%'s powerpad fix a try. I realize the pad upgrade is the best option, but all of us don't have $180 discretionary income to spend on frivolous things.
So on my quest to fix 2 really bad pads and 3 others that were annoying, and $15 later i have a nintendo powerpad to rip to shreds on the hunt for conductive rubber. 99% was right there is plenty of it in here.
So taking the mpc 1000 apart is easy. I've done it at least a dozen times.
Next i moved the pads i was fixing to the top row so they'd be the least used. I carefully removed the old conductive worn out factory rubber using a fresh razor blade and carefully cutting each of the 4 corners without scratching the sensor. Then i used a cotton cue tip dabbed in rubbing alcohol and wiped the square sensor real clean so that it'd have a good clean connection when i hit the rubber pad and the conductive rubber hits the sensor.
I used the rubber i pulled out of one nintendo power pad and used the old one to cut a new template out of a healthy shiny section of it. I then used Dow Corning 700 industrial grade silicone sealant to carefully paste the new conductive rubber to the underside of the mpc rectangle rubber pad i'd be tapping on. In the center so it'd align with the square sensor. (super glue does not work so don't waste your time).
This stuff works perfect and, fortunately, I had some in the garage left over from a construction job and this didn't require much of it. Don't waste your money getting an entire caulking tube of the stuff. any other silicone sealant brand might do. any hardware or paint store should have some.
So i plug the pad back in left the cover off just plugged the wires back in let the sealant dry about 15 minutes.
Power it up and hit mode pad 10 and went to pad looked at sensitivity and velocity curb and hit the pad a few times and it works. after some adjustments I've concluded that this fix works great and the silicone i used holds up STRONG and the conductive rubber is practically identical to the old original factory rubber. The pad triggers when i hit it without fail. I noticed a few double triggers before i turned down pad sensitivity. I moved velocity curve to C or D. Here is the downside, at least for me; I've lost the sensitivity of the velocity range. hitting the pad soft or hard triggers it at full velocity as if you had "full level" on. Well, hell. I can live with this since oftentimes i'd have full level on anyways. Saved me $165 and when money is plentiful I'll probably just get the pad upgrade but this gets me back in the game.
I have plenty of nintendo power pad conductive rubber left over so if you want some PM me. I can fit a pad in a normal envelope. Since I don't have a digital camera the contingency will be if i send you this crap for free your job is to post some pics if you want to try this because you too are too stubborn like me to pay $180 for a ridiculous pad upgrade kit that shouldn't cost more than $75. Now i need to at least try to save up for JJOS but he had to jack up the price on us so i'll pitter along on Akai os. It works for now.
One other thing. I tried another method of gluing new rubber in the same place the old rubber was. By gluing the corners. But i found that this was too conductive and the pad was triggering for long durations of time and i wasn't going to risk shorting it out so i turned it off and removed it and fell back on the steps i described above.