I have a 153 CI Chevy Four Cylinder and Two Speed Power Glide out of a '68 Chevy II Nova or possibly a Postal Jeep. Thinking about putting it my old worn out Model A Coupe. I have no first-hand experience with the Power Glide transmission, but understand from some research that the old time drag race group liked them because you could "push start" them and they only shifted twice. But that's not my question. My question is since the Power Glides may have had this push start feature, could they also be "flat towed" without removing the drive line? If my Model A broke down say five miles from home could I flat tow it back to the garage without destroying the transmission? Just wondering and planning ahead. Thanks. SanoDano
I never heard of that "push start" feature. I had the same set up in my Willys and loved it. It was also an air cooled trans, it had two holes in the bellhousing for cooling and no cooling lines. Pat
Not all Slide-and-Glides can be push started - most cannot, only those with a rear pump. From what I have been taught, you need to get them running quick (around 30mph)... a lot faster than someone can push. Tow start perhaps. Dr Google says the rear pump was last done in 1967. Cheers, Harv
I believe that 1967 was the last year for rear pumps in powerglides, oh, and powerglides do not shift twice, they shift once, from low to high
Hang on! You're going to put a 4 cylinder and a 2 speed auto in your hotrod. I'm guessing you're not going to be in a hurry to go anywhere?
Buddy of mine used to haul cars with a tow dolly and just start the engine and put it in neutral while towing. Supposedly he never had an issue with this method....
With that small engine I think a standard transmission would have more get up,and go. Long ago Rod and Custom dropped a Chevy 4 in a 33-34 using a sbc to early ford trans adapter. As a kid I tried to push start a 59 Impala with a glide in it . Didnt work out so I wouldnt count on that trick.
can't beat a good Powerglide, should be fine in a light A...and they take less horsepower to turn em...
If you were to get the owners manual for the 1968 Chevy II, it will tell you all about towing. I don't have an owners manual for the later design, but the early one (1962) with the rear pump says you can tow it at low speeds.
Some of the power glides behind four cylinder engines in the circa 68 and up era Nova weren’t fully automatic, if my memory is correct. They had a manual valve body as part of the “economy package” to keep cost down. I remember reading about them in Motor Trend or Car Life magazine. I doubt you’d find that in a postal Jeep, though. Edit. Found it. Was called the Torque Drive, and was available with the 153, as well as the inline sixes on the Camaro and Nova in 1968. Don’t know how long it lasted as an option.
I think the Torque Drive trans was also available in the Vega for a year or two. I think if your trans doesn't have a governor or vacuum modulator it may be a Torque Drive. Seem to recall also that the valve body only had like 4 or 5 moving parts as well if you're planning to drop the pan.
My college girlfriend had a '68 Camaro with a 250 and a Torque Drive. The shift quadrant read P R N Hi 1st. She was too lazy to shift it, and would just put it in Hi, which made it act like a 1950-52 Powerglide and come off of the line in high gear...0-60 by sometime tomorrow.
Little chuckle , in some of the instructions it's stated " turn on ignition ,"in others , no mention is made of the ignition , hmmmm? LOL ..
i bought a '53 chevy and we push-started it. if the PG is cast iron, you can. some of the aluminum ones will, too.
Don't mix your torque converters up on them old 2 speeds sone buicks and chevys had different input spines sizes . The weak point on a real power glide is the governor it had a long pin with a c clip on one end and it held the valve that switched fro low to high if tge c clip slung off and they did the thing wouldn't shift to 2nd gear. Yeah they used 20 less horse then say a turbo 350 /400 used and were pretty reliable unless you started jerking them hard .used dexron mercon fluid I think 10 or 22 quarts. The ones without cooling lines ,were out of chevy 2s and vans ,although you might find one on a put in a car you couldn't add lines .If when you switched to the line less trannys. There was one band in it and it was easy to adjust it had stud on the side and you turned the center stud after loosening the lock nut.You ran the band adjust ment in till it was barly snug then you backed it off around 1 turn and tried it on the road of its right you knew other wise back under car and adjust another half turn looser ect. THE 1965 ON TRANS WERE 2 and 1/8" longer then the priviouse years of power glides I had a 62 and one winter it flooded and I had to get tow truck to tow me a couple miles to get it started when she finally started it backfired about 100 times but straightened out when it warmed up.we got up past 40mph I remember...maybe like 50 mph.had the cast iron trans.(pg)
A 68 PowerGlide would not have a rear pump, so you can't push start it. Most all automatic transmission prior to 1966 had rear pumps. That would allow you to push start the car. One nice evening in the late 90's my wife and I went to the video store to get a movie. We live in a small town so we weren't all that far from home, a mile at most. I drove my 57 T-Bird to the video store. When we were ready to leave, the starter bendix broke. Since the Bird was little and easy to push, we decided to just hand push it home. We even had a couple of people who volunteered to help. About a block or two from the video store, a cop pulled up behind us. He didn't have a problem with us pushing the car (all residental streets), but he said he would follow us so no one would rear end us. He had a large push bumper on his squad, it was padded and matched up well with the T-Bird bumper. I got him to push us and I told him to really give a good push as I had to get it up to 20 mph or so to get the trans to work. He gave us a good push and the Bird started right up.
Funny how perspective changes with time. I was pretty young when the industry dropped the rear pump en masse, but distinctly remember the bitching, moaning, and hand wringing because “they” changed the design and now you weren’t going to be able to push start your car. In the sixty years since that change was made, I can’t think of a single time that I was inconvenienced because I couldn’t push start the family truckster. Now back to our regularly scheduled Powerglide discussion.
The Jalopy Journal
