Well you said you worked the intake and the carb. A torqueflite shifts based on postion of the carb lever and some other stuff. So the adjustment of the carb linkage tells the transmission how hard and when to shift. If it thinks, based on the linkage, that you are really accelerating hard, the trans will stay in the lower gear. If you take the linkage off to the transmission, it will shift into 3rd gear very fast, not normal. Too much pressure and it stays in each gear longer. See what I am saying? (no, but I heard you). Stan