Sorry, hang in there and be patient. I need to ask more questions.... When you say longitudinal feed, do you mean the compound feed? That is, the feed you would normally use to face a plate or end of a shaft? If so, one would not normally auto operate the carriage (left or right) simultaneously with the compound auto feed. That's a dangerous combination and most modern lathes have mechanical lock-outs to prevent it.
FWIW: On all the manual lathes I've used, there's usually a way to change rotational direction of the leadscrew. When it's set to move the carriage toward the HS, the compound will move toward you (as if you were facing a piece from the center out to the edge). I've always assumed this is a built-in safety to prevent a crash.
I'm obviously not familiar with your lathe but, I've operated a good handful of manual lathes and just trying to help out.
Ray