History Remembering Sparkomatic...

Sparkomatic lives on in my sedan delivery. I recently put a lo-stick Genny shifter in and didn't like the stick I had to go with it. So, hanging on the wall was a brand spanking new Sparkomatic shifter display I have had for a bazillion years. I took it apart and made a custom mount and walla...back to the 60's.

 

Installed a Sparkomatic shifter in my 1st car, a 52 Stude convert (car cost $25) 6 cyl stick. Think it came from JC Whitney.

 

Still have a Sparkomatic 8-track am/fm stereo in my '40 Ford Coupe. It still works, though not well. It was in the car when I bought it 21yrs. ago. Like their shifters, I think they were always perceived to be for the "budget-minded"...Don.

 

This Sparkomatic catalog with these ads is from 1964. Car batteries, a tune up kit w/ gimmick spark plugs... and a Nitro ad...

Call up Summit Racing and see if they sell cans of Nitro... see what the salesman says!

 

when i came back from nam we sold sun tachs for $10, shifters for $10 and 20$ to 50$ for slots and tires bought and sold a ton of parts and never made a dime but got to run some good stuff free and bought a few Reverb units proabbly had to throw them away, mostly never had the cash to buy new stuff, someone was always selling something
spent a lot of weekends in my parents garage doing friends work to make a $$, made a lot of exhaust with conduit , torch and hacksaw
tried a lot of crazy things and most worked, but a lot of the work was not very sophisticated, such as welding up Cushman gears and filing to fit

sure was nice to get mills, chop saws and a wire feed

raced bikes and cars for 20 years and never had a wire feed untill the last years, but fortunately had a mandrel bender for building cages did 1 1/2 " black iron pipe AHA the bad old days

 

I don't remember much of a choice of 3 speed floor shifters in '62 on price, quality or brand. I think I paid around $20 for mine at our downtown Blue Star Auto Store, while making about $1.50/hr at the local A & P. That wasn't cheap! A Hurst it wasn't, but also not a POS.

 

lol I thought I was the only one who did stuff like that. I had two Sparkomatic shifters over the years. I put one on my '56 F100 when I first got it on the road and had the levers backwards. After realizing what I'd done I left it that way, figuring some thief would not be able to drive it. Drove it like that for three years, till I dropped in the 429 & top loader 4 speed.
Years before that I put one in my '66 Catalina after the three on the tree housing broke. Worked fine as long as I didn't speed shift, as it had tendency to hang up between first and second. Hell I haven't thought of Sparkomatic in years.

 

I had one of these in '68 in my '56 ford w/a 390, 3spd od. I don't think it was the shifter's fault, but I kept breaking cluster gears.

 

In the summer of 1964 I talked my dad into letting me install a Sparkomatic 3-speed shifter in the family '59 Ford Custom 300. It worked great all that day. That night while cruising the local area I accidently tried to pull back into 1st gear while rolling. It knocked a tooth off the cluster in 1st gear. Dad was not happy when he had to pay to get the tranny rebuilt. Needless to say the new Sparkomatic shifter was removed. Although it was not the shifters fault, Dad said no more modifying the family cars.

 

Thanks for all the posts fellas! Great stories.

Here's my Spark' shifter in my Fairlane. I like it and this type design makes it extra sturdy.

Lots of people had or have their shifters... anyone use Sparkomatic "electronic" speed parts?

I bet some people along the years owned one and didn't even know it. Nowhere on this tachometer does it say Sparkomatic... but it is. The Solid State 270.

 

More "unmarked" Sparkomatic electronic accessories.

The SLIMLINE series.

 

Who could forget the infamous Sparkomatic Lectra-Scope?

 

Thanks Goober.

Here's the advertisement for that.

 

George Whalen in the old Strickler Jenkins DodgeBoys A/FX car with Sparkomatic sponsership

 

A couple of decals I have.

The one in my Fairlane is an early water slide. The other is a peel and stick and definitely has a more 1970's vibe to it.

 

More Sparkomatic tachometer pics for your viewing pleasure.

 

I remember sparkomatic and White Front. We used to go to one in the Belmont/Redwood City area.

I have owned a couple of Sparkomatic shifters. If I recall they worked to change gears and that was pretty important at the time.

 

I have a set of sparkomatic adjustable traction bars I bought about 10 years ago.

 

Sparkomatic E-T's.

 

A couple of vintage ads for the night time crowd. Thanks for viewing.

 

A few more pics.

 

Two new arrivals from 1965. Walnut knob shifter and a "Show 'N Go" knob.

 

That's a blast from the past! I put a Sparkomatic floor shifter on my '57 Chevy Powerglide when I was in hi school back in 1968!

 

Had a Sparkomatic shifter in my Fleetline in 1959. This had the chrome round rod on top of which went my high school lathe project solid steel shift knob. Would that be early billet? Worked great considering that the column shifter guts were worn out.

 

I had a spark o matic 3 speed shifter in my "stick changeover" 57 150 chevy 283. in 1970.nothing really wrong with it, infact I broke 3 transmissons with it,and a pair of rear springs. I do remember being envious of the guys with Hurst shifters and saganaw fully synco'd 3 speeds...Had this car thru-out high school,until a girl with a brand new Javelin pull out infront of me and totalled both cars..

 

I installed a Sparkomatic 3-speed shifter in a '63 Chevy in the late '60s. After several weeks of putzing with it - trying to get it to NOT hang up between gears - I took it out and tossed it under the workbench. That led to the purchase of my first Hurst shifter. After that, if it had 3 pedals, it had a Hurst!

BTW - I try not to be part of the English police, but "walla" is spelled "voila".... It's just one of those things that gives me the NCIS salute when I see it!

 

A guy with a truck like mine that I became acquainted with had a Sparkomatic shifter. I had never heard of their shifters before then,but I was familiar with their crappy stereos. This was in '89,and I've never seen another Sparkomatic shifter in person since then.

 

I loved that knob.....

 

The electronic Sparkomatic items I have needed alot work to get nice again. Like many of your stories, these items weren't the greatest quality to begin with and often were removed from the car and sat under a work bench or at the bottom of someones toolbox for the last 40 years.

The first photos are what the Slimline gauges looked like when I bought them. Originally had three gauge units. While removing the Temp gauge for cleaning, it cracked across the face... Son of A Bitch!!! Well, after I came to my senses, I remembered they came in groups of two as well. So, out came the ol' hacksaw, a file, elbow grease, steel wool and chrome polish. I had to make the wood sides too as they were missing... they're not exact as original, but will do.

Before and after pics.

 

I ran this one in my Fairlane for a while before I got a walnut knobbed Super Shifter. These lucite knobs are cool though.