very sluggish getting to boost

[240dddd]

In the last few days my 1985 300D has been very sluggish until it hits boost, at which point it picks up quite suddenly and feels normal. In other words it seems to struggle in the low rpm's until about 2200rpm where the boost comes in. Also, as soon as the rpm's drop below about the 2200rpm range the boost goes away very quickly and the car suddenly feels like a brick with less power than my former 240d.

For example yesterday on a medium grade hill i had it floored and it wasn't accelerating past about 1700rpm with the pedal floored. I had to manually downshift at which point it did slowly accelerate to the point of hitting boost.

Also, when starting from a stop it feels similar to how a manual transmission car feels when you try to start from second or third gear, very little torque until the rpm's slowly start to creep up.

On the other hand once on the freeway it accelerates easily to 75-85mph and runs like a top with the RPM's in the 3k range.

A few things I've done recently:

* rebuilt my front suspension
* new starter
* dsconnected and capped-off the EGR
* had to reconnect the vacuum hose going to the transmission at the transmission (not sure how long it had been disconnected)
* replaced a few vacuum connectors that were worn out and possibly had holes in them, particularly at the 'blue flying saucer'.
* replaced the air cleaner bracket

A few thoughts on what it could be or what i should try:

* probably wouldn't hurt to change the fuel filters, but they have been changed about six months ago
* is my kickdown switch not working?
* could the recent vacuum hose work be messing with transmission shift points, e.g. preventing it from downshifting?

Any wisdom here is appreciate.