Originally Posted by rcounts

Could moving things around (particularly to remove the oil filter) have caused (or worsened) a vacuum leak? I know on my 300CD most of the vacuum lines exit the firewall close to the oil filter tower, and until recently everytime I even touched them one or more of the hard lines or check valves would pull out of the rubber Ts that MB used to connect them all together.

During my recent engine swap I cinched down a small black zip tie around each of the places where a hardline goes into a rubber T - to squeeze the opening in the T down to a smaller diameter and make them grip the hard lines more tightly. Seems to have worked. Moving them around doesn't make them come unplugged anymore, and my trans seems to be shifting more smoothly.

Just a thought...