So I've been looking at a 1962 LeSabre which is a beautiful car, all original paint and interior. Recent rebuild on the nailhead. What's giving me pause to purchase is the Dynaflow. I've always been leery of automatics and know almost nothing about this one. I understand that it doesn't "shift" and to be honest, I'm afraid of the unknown. How does the transmissions let you know if they're going to be a problem? Are they reliable? Obviously being 56 years old makes it a little bit of an unknown quantity anyway, but are people still able to work on these? Is the transmission shop gonna know what it is? How expensive is a rebuild? And finally if I want it out, what are my options for a swap? Thanks so much from the new guy. Seth
As soon as the TH400 appeared, the Dynaflow was history. But a swap is quite difficult back in 62, often involves the engine and mods to driveshaft & frame. Bruce Roe
We have owned a '62 LeSabre with a Dynaflow since fall of '13 and have had no problems. It took awhile to get used to not feeling the upshift or downshift (unless kicking in passing gear) and the P N D L R . Now, its routine.
Don't let the Dynaflow scare you off. If the car is what you want, get it. I rebuilt my dynaflow with the Buick Shop Manual as guide, it has nearly all the info you will need except experience.
Seth, send me a PM. I swapped the Dynaflow out of my 62 Wildcat. I can tell you what was involved so you have some idea of your options. As for my impressions of the Dynaflow, if you're just looking to cruise, I thought it was fine. The parking pawl broke (had about 133k miles on it at the time) and instead of rebuild it I decided to do the swap.
The first Dynaflow I ever had was half in the bag, it didn't "dynaflow" right and needed to be shifted from low to high manually. I had just hauled the car out of the bush after a 20 year slumber, and then couldn't afford to do anything with it except fill it with fluid. It was pretty much bullet proof. I was 18 at the time and raced the car a lot, so it was getting regularly abused. The motor let go before the tranny could have. The tranny never let go as long as I flogged that car. I've driven a few others since then that were working properly, they are nice and smooth, they are quite responsive too. Besides being fuel hog, there is nothing wrong with them.
