I think I figured out the bulk of my issue. Due to my own competence or the tilt of my driveway, I did not have enough fluid in the transmission. The way it was acting, this makes sense. It just did not have enough fluid to build pressure in the torque converter and I just got limp performance.

After fixing this I got better torque coupling though the transmission so now I could bog down the motor going up hills but I still could not get good performance up hills. It feels like it is geared too high. I don't think this machine (former Navy unit) has a creep mode on it and it definitely does not have the 2 speed option that some of these have. The result is that it really can't go up hills. Combined with the poor brakes it is not not good at going up or down hills. I don't blame the machine, it is just not made for that.

Unfortunately for me, hills is all I got on my properly and I have decided that this machine is just not going to work for me. After all the parts and work I put into it, I am going to sell it. I have it on Craiglist (San Diego) now. I am really disappointed though. There are so many things I could use this for. I was hoping this would be a low cost machine to solve my problems. I really like working on it. This machine is a tank!

Good luck!