If you plug the transmission directly to the vacuum pump you will have extremely soft shifts and very fast like 1 then 2 then 3 at about 20 miles per hour...

The vacuum blocks perform a couple fo functions but the primary one is adjusting the shifting based on throttle position. it does the same thing for the egr but since you don't havet o worery about that...
When at idle or slight throttle there is full or nearly full vacuum to the transmission providing soft shifts in slight acceleration. When pedal to the metal there is very little if any vacuum at the tranny causing hard (solid) shifts so you get acceleration into the next gear.

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