This may be due to the switch or if you look at the board I have, these long runs are next to other traces that carry information (IF and Audio signal) so the issue of isolation comes to mind.
This is what makes this difficult.
You may have been working in the rear portion of the board, but as with any device of ages such as these, the issue of "dust rings" and Corrosion comes into play. IT can b e you "shifted" the case off kilter, and a key postiton is now no longer a part to ground.
At least the KIND of ground it should be.
This is why I tend to go back to the switch, and even the pots own mounting location.
The Case to backplane is no longer, or at least acts like, it's not grounded or BONDED for RF - it simply needs cleaning up and reseating ALL the controls.
Why would a meter show the same needle position while you operate a switch or the Calibrate knob? Realize that the Meters "sense" is all the way back to the rear of the board - if RF has found a different path, you will see it bypasses all the circuitry and works with what it knows - being the easiest return path (or patch) in the circuit - could be the side panels - (measure using your DVM on the Side panel to Foil ground for this effect you may see it)
You had a radio working fine until you started to recap it, now the SWR meter is goofing up, yet you also noticed POWER rising up when you didn't want it too, you seem to have tamed that problem...so you may need to look further and into more details about Ground plane effects and ground loops.
This WIKI article ( Search for: Capacitance instability ) talks about some of the problems with AGE and Disc caps - they fail gradually but then when they do, they act like isolators, insulation - for a greater range of frequencies - meaning they are nothing but dirt in fancy ceramic packaging - you'll need to replace them.
I showed you something earlier, and you didn't seem ot have read it very well, there are TWO types of 148DX models - two board, 010 and 879 - one uses 8719 while the other use 145106 - ok? do you see a pattern, you have NOT told me if your board is the same as the one I've sent you in pics...
Why does this matter?
Review the posts above, there are two types of RF grounding present in these two revisions of the same boards - you need to pay attention to their differences because what works for my radio may not be the same for yours due to a revision/Provisional change to the layouts between the two.
The front panel may be the issue - which is why I mentioned the switch - as you work thru the cleanup - even potentiometer shafts and switch housings can lose connection with the main backplane they're mounted to because their outline they were originally assembled and shipped and serviced life'd thru - has now changed.
- work the switches - cause their contacts to do some wiping action - while you are doing this - rotate that CAL knob - see if you can make the needle bounce or shift, if it does, then your issue with body capacitance qUirK revealing this grounding problem and why? because the potentiometer or even the entire case assembly for the front panel has an Open RF grounding problem - you have to locate it.
Just take some alcohol - fine steel brush and some simple oil - find a combination thereof that works for you, and using a hot iron - start carefully reheating some of the slide switches and apply some oil into that assembly to let the heat and detergents in the oil to loosen and liquefy the crud and oxides - don't need a ton of heat, but you will need to get after their "TiteBond" they used in the threaded screws to keep them seated - you have to do this - to remove them and reseat on a clean surface to help with this conduction problem.
Restoring a radio is a labor of love and like anything in love or dealing with issues of possession - you'll have to iron out your differences before marriage because otherwise one or both - will wind up in a junk pile somewhere - one rotting away in a landfill while another may wind up rotting in a tavern because it can't get back the time it lost in trying to make the effort work.
