Odometer shows ~194K miles

I think this may have happened once before; on level ground. Today I was looking for a parking spot and drove by one I noticed a bit late. I stopped; was a slight grade downward, and then put the trans in reverse; foot on brake of course, then I took foot off brake and press the accelerator normally. The car hesitated for a slight bit and then jerked into gear. I have not noticed any other issues with the trans; it shifts smoothly. When I got home I parked on a level space and checked the fluid, it was only a tad bit low.

So, can being a tad bit low cause this issue? The fluid looked clear on the stick and I did not smell any odor. The other time I had backed out of a car space, put the car in forward and applied normal accelerator pedal and the car hesitated and jerked into gear. The first time I thought it was not being use to the car and having the wheels cut hard.

I checked with the previous owner and she checked with her son that did servicing on the vehicle and he said he had never serviced the trans; no filter change or oil change. He also stated that doing so would cause the trans to develop issues; Dad never mention that one to me so would appreciate feedback on this as well.

Advice?

Filter could be getting clogged with dirt and clutch material. You might get away just once with dropping the pan, replacing the filter and upgrading to Dex 6.

But yea, he is kind of right. When a trans is old, a lot of the clutch material is suspended in the trans fluid which kinda helps the clutch'* more.

I have noticed on my 4T65E sometimes it does the same thing on hill in reverse.
It seems to be better when I check the fluid level hot, and ensure it is slightly above the full line seems to help.
I would want to drop the pan and see if there is much in the way of clutch material if any in there. Replace the filter and as Mike also suggested use Dex 6.
The LeSabre will probably like that.

I avoid hills at all costs, and park on level ground......many times I park at the bottom of a hill, and then get out and "thumb" my way up and down....

I think I will drop the pan when I can (hey, that rhymes), change the filter, inspect the material in the pan, use the Dex 6, and perhaps plan for a trans overhaul in my future. It won't be the first transaxle I have overhauled.

Excellent let us know how it goes, how it looks inside the pan.
Who knows.... you may be good to go for quite a while longer after servicing it!

Ha ha... I just hope you don't live in San Fran...

When you are done with your'* Kim, you can come over and overhaul mine.

I have done a few rear-wheel drives; one was a Camaro that belonged to my brother; he helped with getting it in and out of the car but I was the bench tech, and two transaxles. On the transaxles, one was a Honda and the other was a Ford Taurus. Can't remember what type of Honda. On the Honda, there was no pan with filter. The filter was inside of the case; you separated the case to replace the filter . I guess Honda figured you would not be replacing the filter unless you were braking down the trans. I had heard so much about how great Hondas were but seeing how they built the trans did not impress me.

The shop manual for the Taurus said the only way to remove the transaxle was to drop the engine cradle; engine and trans. I was not equipped to do that. The reason being there was not enough room to unbolt the trans from the engine and slide them apart. However, I did drop the trans without dropping the engine cradle. I removed the side pan covering the valve body, removed the input shaft, removed the valve body and then cover the second part where the valve body mounted to prevent damage. There was just enough room to drop the trans; you had to rotate the trans out, and rotate it back in. The trans ran great after my rebuilt.