1971 was the last year for the Powerglide in the large Chevies; the Vega chugged along for another two more years. I don’t know if this is a fundamental limitation or could be engineered out of, but GM surely kept trying (and incrementally succeeding) for decades, and produced reliable economy products while doing it. I didn’t know it only had one gear ratio. My 64 Pontiac Tempest still has the original and works like new. My 1962 Impala ss with 327/250 rocks its power-slide! My 2000 Impala 3800 and 2002 Intrigue went 171K and 169K miles without any problems other than wear items and the famous GM ISS which was no big deal at all to have replaced so I would say good cars in the last 20 years are not hard to come by. It gets only green antifreeze in it, as well. In the olden days with mechanical fuel pumps on the engine and no fuel injection, plus real big chrome bumpers, push starting might have been more effective than cranking. I got some work done on it but it worked fine. 1980 X body. My first “is”, not “was”, in my 52 Styleline Deluxe, witch is still ticking. I am no expert on the various Dynaflows, so I cannot comment on those. Having driving both the PG and TH-350 in the same car, a 1966 Impala with 283-4bbl. I will be doing either an a or T project in the not so distant future so I've been looking for a drivetrain. A website happened to bring up the Jetfire, and I mentioned the “liquid injection”–I wondered what happened if you didn’t keep it filled with the alcohol mixture. But when three-speed automatics came along, they allowed the engine to operate more efficiently in its best rev band, not racing or lugging like the PG (in the 35 – 60 mph range). Definitely sheds some light on the engineering of transmissions. I don’t tend ot have a lot of transmission problems with any cars. I know it's supposed to be tough, but my Father had a couple and even, in the early 60's I could never figure out why chevy held on to the powerglide, or slip and slide banana glide, as we used to call it back then. The PG isn’t that different from the THM at all; its torque converter might have had a slightly wider range, but not that much. I am always scrounging for good, usable, free parts and came across a great deal. Granted, only with the big blocks at first. I bought it from my Grandma, who bought it new. I suspect the ideal rev band should’ve kept increasing as GM refined the design. So a 1967 PG from a Corvair is going in. The CVT transmission http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continuously_variable_transmission provides what you’re describing, but there’s no need to team up a CVT with a torque converter; the CVT does that job already.

All Rights Reserved. Nothing will destroy a car like taxi use. Around 2005, GM secretly changed the materials used in their head gaskets. (In fact, there was a switch at the bottom of the injection tank that automatically popped open the wastegate if the fluid reservoir was empty, to avoid engine damage.) And to hope that you will have a wonderful day today. I don’t think any other automatic transmission has been used in so many different brands of cars. And CVTs are very efficient, since they work mechanically, not by pumping fluid. The TH400 was the first GM transmission to use it, after GM finally gave in and paid the piper.

It may have been outdated when the other 3 speeds started to show up but 50 years later it still dominates the lower classes in drag racing. Within the past year I’ve had to put the third AOD Ford trans into our Lincoln Town Car with less that 100K miles on it after I’d had the old trans serviced and fluid and filter changed. Had the AT transmission too. I had several PG equipped cars. Here in Vancouver, it is 90% Toyota Prius. I had no trouble getting well over 150K out of them, in fact never had to rebuild one. Any razor is only as good as the blades that go on it, of course, and here Gillette has not made any changes.