# Soliton: automatic or manual transmission?



## Tesseract (Sep 27, 2008)

brainzel said:


> ...
> Would you recommend an automatic or a manual transmission for your Soliton Junior and Soliton 1?


The answer is yes... 

Automatics do consume a small amount of power when idling, and they can be somewhat tricky to get to shift properly in newer cars (say, 2004 onward), but being restricted to manual transmissions only eliminates many otherwise worthy donor vehicles.


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## brainzel (Jun 15, 2009)

It would be a new car (2011/2012), so I can choose within both kinds of transmission.

So automatic would run constantly at a couple rpm at traffic lights and suchlike, right?
Do I have to find the right shift points by adjusting the values in the soliton software?

Beyond this there ar no per/contra for any transmission choice?


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## Tesseract (Sep 27, 2008)

brainzel said:


> It would be a new car (2011/2012), so I can choose within both kinds of transmission.


Then you can expect the transmission to be completely electronically controlled. That can be a good or bad thing, btw.



brainzel said:


> So automatic would run constantly at a couple rpm at traffic lights and suchlike, right?


The easiest way to use an automatic is to idle the electric motor so that the internal hydraulic pressure is maintained; in other words, just like the ICE.



brainzel said:


> Do I have to find the right shift points by adjusting the values in the soliton software?
> 
> Beyond this there ar no per/contra for any transmission choice?


The transmission shift points are controlled by the engine and transmission computers, not the Soliton.

I'm not really qualified to comment on pros/cons of transmission choice - you'll want to talk to a conversion shop that has done both (I just design the power electronics for Evnetics  )


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## piotrsko (Dec 9, 2007)

The only thing I can add: Manual transmissions have LESS required computer inputs and associated control wiring, which means less to make adapters (dongles?) for. Also the transmission usually retains those required components irregardless of motor choice.


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## PhantomPholly (Aug 20, 2008)

There is another thread in this forum on PowerGlide transmissions. They seem to be dirt simple, and with a small amount of work can be made to be fully automatic offering the best of both worlds for very little money.

If your donor vehicle is suitable to this transmission, I would consider selling whatever transmission was already in it and using the money for one of these.


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## DJBecker (Nov 3, 2010)

PhantomPholly said:


> There is another thread in this forum on PowerGlide transmissions. They seem to be dirt simple, and with a small amount of work can be made to be fully automatic offering the best of both worlds for very little money.
> 
> If your donor vehicle is suitable to this transmission, I would consider selling whatever transmission was already in it and using the money for one of these.


The PowerGlide is for rear wheel drive. There are few new cars with RWD, and vanishingly few where a PowerGlide will fit.


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