[FWDLK] Powerflite Trouble

[Joseph Bouboulis <Joseph_Bouboulis@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I have a 56 Belvedere with the push button powerflite. It's been sitting
for a few years and I'm trying to get it going again but I'm having
transmission troubles. When I put it in drive or low it feels like the
parking brake is on, but it's not. It goes into gear but when I step on the
gas the engine struggles to move the car forward. Like as if it's fighting
something. And as soon as I let off the gas it stops like I jammed the
brakes on. Thing is when I put it in reverse it's fine. Just take my foot
off the brake and the car goes. The trans pan and shift cable was leaking
so I dropped the pan to replace the gasket & o-ring and consequently I
adjusted the shift cable. I thought this might fix it but no go. I adjusted
it while watching the detent as it engaged the ball in each gear on the
valve body so I know the cable is adjusted correctly. And as I said it
drops into gear no problem. There is also enough fluid in the trans. I made
sure of that. I had to recently redo the brakes but they are not dragging
or stuck (I had originally though that was the cause).

Only thing I can think of now is that I may need to clean out the valve
body. There was quite a bit of gunk in the bottom of the pan. A mopar buddy
of mine said torqueflites sometimes will stick in both reverse and drive
because of dirt in the valve body, but I don't know how similar the
torqueflite & powerflite are and he doesn't know 50's mopars.