Quote:
Originally Posted by jiminpa
I am guessing you are planning on capturing the energy generated when the vehicle is breaking via some sort of hydraulic pump and then using it again when the vehicle starts from a stop. If this is the case, and, your transaxle is shot, have you considered replacing the transaxle with a hydrostatic motor that could also be used as the pump to capture the energy? A hydraulic pump could be attached to the gas engine for drive purposes.
|
You are exactly correct. We are trying to initially design a "parallel system" which means the entire existing vehicle stays stock and this hydraulic braking system is simply added on top...yet if the transaxle is shot our backup plan was to move to a "series system" where the vehicle is changed to a hydraulic driveline...the series is definitely a more efficient system yet it is also more costly. The goal of our project is to design a system that can be scaled up or down (per vehicle weight) and universally adapted to any given vehicle...that is the reason we are pushing more toward the parallel design.
I guess my next step is to split this case and look for any internal damage. I'm really hoping the people who had this last weren't smart enough to properly adjust this transaxle and that is the source of the problem...though I do not think that is the case.
Thank you for the help everyone, any more advice is still welcome.