I recently went through all the under-hood vacuum connections on my 1985 w123 300d 146k miles. I'm also in the process of removing all the emission components off this car and therefore I have removed the vacuum circuits for them. Somehow the first time I did this, I got a few connections backwards. Despite this, all of my up shifts were firm and on cue but downshifts were clunky, loud, and harsh. None of my shift's max speeds ever went over 4400rpm. Now that the vacuum system is wired correctly, the downshift clunks are nearly silent but now flares on all up-shifts WOT or not. Before shifting, the engine now revs out to 5100 on first, and then to 5300 on second... atleast according to my tach. All gears accelerate to a certain rpm and hold there for 1-2 seconds before they shift. What could be wrong? I have adjusted the bowden cable with no effect multiple turns either direction. The bowden cable is still under spring-load so I know it's not broken. And I have applied vacuum to the modulator and it held vacuum....