5-speed gearbox conversion for your Bugeye and any Spridget, with templates and installation support!

We have done many five speed conversions in our shop. This upgrade is about the best thing you can do for your car. Our kit, BTW, fits all Sprites and Midgets with 948, 1098 or 1275 engines, so that means it fits all Spridgets between 1958 and 1974.

This conversion requires a skilled installer to be done right. The instructions from the manufacturer are imperfect, but we provide supplemental support If you buy our kit. We provide free tech support while you do the installation. If you buy this kit elsewhere, you are pretty much on your own. 

This is the only kit that comes with the templates you need to modify your tunnel and cross member (check out the photos to see what tunnel mods end up needing to be done.). No one else sells a Sprite/Ford kit with these templates, which we have created after the many installations on Sprites and Midgets.

Other sellers claim the shift lever is ready to install. This is inaccurate. The shift lever has to be cut and welded to fit into a Sprite shift tower. 

When Sprites are well sorted, the overdrive gearbox makes the car much more user-friendly, and opens up many more high speed adventures. The five-speed boxes are also fully synchronized, which makes shifting easier. No more non-synchro first gear-no more grinding! 

Check out the videos below! You can see how this conversion makes the cars much more highway friendly. You can also see the stock shift tower in place.

Some modification is required to the crossmember under the transmission to accommodate the new five speed transmission and speedo cable. The cable is routed through the side of the tunnel, into the right side of the cockpit, over the crossmember and straight through the bottom of the bulkhead panel as shown in the pictures. We can pick up your car and make these modifications for you, and we also provide templates and tech support to make the install easier if you choose to do this yourself. A complete new clutch, throwout bearing and rebuilt gearbox is included with each kit.

We have installed many Datsun and Ford kits (like this one). I prefer this Ford kit because it’s a bit easier to fit into the car, even though some modifications to the frame are required. The Datsun gearboxes also seem more fragile-we've had customers break them- and parts are harder to find. These Ford gearboxes, on the other hand, are quite stout, and thus this is the only five speed conversion that we sell.

Use the drop down arrow to chose a kit for 948, 1098 or 1275 applications, depending on which engine you have. If you need help identifying which engine is in your car, feel free to call anytime!

Click here to view our full catalog!