Toyota Repair: 1990 Corolla wagon suspect transmission problem, corolla wagon, steel sleeve

Question
Hello,  i recently Purchased a used Corolla with a engine that had been overheated many times.  Found several problems and decided to swap in a JDM engine instead of rebuilding the original unit.  The swap went well and the engine seems fine.  It runs well and drives great except on hills! it seems to loose all power on hills that are more then a slight grade. i thought it may have been a fuel delivery trouble due to the vehicle sitting for a long time and there was some sediment in the original tank so I replaced the tank and filters. Same issue no matter what posision the throtle is in it will hardly pull itself up any hills.  It will rev freely when on the same grades it wont climp when in park or nuetral but it acks like it is stuck in high gear and can not pull the gear.  Manually shifting down to first or second has no affect.  Do these automatics have a lockup converter?  Any help would be apreciated.  The car would fly up the same hills prior to the engine swap so thats why I am puzzled.  I did not change anything on the tranny when we changed engines we just removed the cables from the throtlebody and believe it is in the same position as when removed. I also have changed the filter and fluid of the automatic to be safe since it did sit awhile prior to my purchace and engine swap.

Answer
Since this loss of power was not there with the original engine I don't see how the transmission could all of the sudden cause this unless the throttle pressure cable is not connected or not adjusted correctly which will not allow the transmission to downshift under load.
So I suggest checking this first, the cable comes from the transmission up to the throttle body, it's connected near where the throttle cable is connected, see if it connected and moves when the throttle is opened, make sure it's adjusted, there should be a small steel sleeve on the cable, with the throttle closed the sleeve should be about 1mm away from the end of the cable housing.