I would love to see a shop that can take down a Honda autobox from the car into bits and back in one hour. The problem with the Honda autoboxes is that there is no sump, to remove said filter the whole damned thing needs to be taken apart. Charas smoking design engineer I guess.
btw, OP if this is a prosmatec car, remove and clean the shift solenoids on the right face of the transmission, they can be accessed from the front wheelhouse by removing the plastic splash guard. It seems that you have already have then cleaned out, and you have dirty fluid which confirms a dirty filter, no amount of air pumping will get any fluid out or clean the filter. That trans needs to be taken out to bits - there is no other way, curse Honda here with colorful panjabi gaaliyan, and do not compare a toyota transmission shift charecteristic to a Honda, toyota transmissions are always more refined.
for the mercedes guy, If you have a 1.8 W202 car, you would be having a 4 speed hydraulic automatic, Its shift aggression is set by the shift modulator, its connected to the intake manifold and changes transmission shift shock according to manifold vacuum, meaning at full throttle there is no vacuum and the transmission will shift HARD because at full throttle the driver wants all the pep he can get from the car, and driving at 1/4 pedal means that you are tootling along so the transmission will glide into the next gear.
BUT, it controls shift shock for all gears, not just 1-2 shift. hard 1-2 shift is also caused by a dirty filter, incorrect fluid or fluid too cool.
If you are facing this
1-2 = hard (elephant kick)
2-3 = lazy (drunken shift)
3-4 = pert (normal)
in a trans that is normal operating temperature (check level from dipstick), with correct fluid and new filter. You need to overhaul the unit, the B2 piston and clutch 2 is ready to go out.