Had to trailer my truck home today. Convertor or 700r4 problems.

[suspect]

I'll try and give all the information and scenarios I can think of.

700r4 (1989 model) with a Hughs 2500 Lockup Stall Convertor behind a 383.

I personally did the full rebuild of the transmission. I did the usual upgrades: beast sunshell, boost valve, servo, shift kit, etc.
After the trans was finished being built, I mounted it to the engine and sat them on the frame. After 9 months, I did the first start on the engine. I didn't have the TV cable hooked up nor did I kick the trans into gear. For the next 5 months, I only started the engine for testing for a total of about 30-40 min run time. After a total of about 14 months, I set the TV cable and kicked the trans into gear. It went into reverse and through all the gears just fine. For 3 months, I drove around little trips not to far from home because I didn't have a way to lock up the convertor. I put about 50 miles on it at this point.

I finally installed a Painless Lockup Wiring Kit. It came with the vaccum switch for lock up. I was having the issue with it constantly locking/unlocking and the vacuum delay that is recommended for this problem is discontinued. So, I cut off the vacuum delay switch and wired up a toggle switch. Once I get up to 50-55 mph, I flip the switch and I could see that the convertor would lock and my rpm's would drop 200/300 rpm. Once I started braking, I would flip it to unlock. If I floored it, it would downshift and work fine.
I've put 198 miles on the odometer doing it this way. The only issues I've noticed is once in a while when I'm pulling in/out of the garage or parking, I would hear a somewhat loud ticking noise from the trans, something like the fins in the convertor hitting something. And the other issue is sometimes when I come to a stop or just let off the brake, their would be a rough jarring in the drivetrain. Like their was slack somewhere between the trans and axle and had a strong banging or nudging. Once I hit about 140 mi on the OD, I noticed it wasn't really shifting as strongly. It was slipping into gear. If I got on it from a stop, the rpms would rap out and I would have to let off the gas to let it shift.

So, today I left work and I got on it a little. It shifted from 1st to 2nd, then just revved up. And that is all I have now, 1st, 2nd, and reverse. From a stop, it will shift from 1st to 2nd just fine, but nothing else. The rpms just rev up if I give it any gas, I can creep about 20 mph. Goes into reverse fine also.

I'm thinking I screwed up by not doing a proper convertor break-in or my method of locking up the convertor is wrong.

Any ideas?
Thanks, Daniel