You're fighting two different battles.
You're playing with R131 and R130 / D501 - remember that with R130 - it is needed to keep TR24 working - but more off than on. Because R130 sinks power arriving from R131 and AMC / ALC amps - when you remove it, R131 turns on and keeps on - TR24 - ALL The Time. Means it's conducting, turned on.
When you remove R131 - you're turning off TR24.
R130/D501 - that area goes to VR12 - and because of D501 - TR24 will always be turned on just enough so you have limiter action.
Try this...
When the diodes banded end flows to VR12 (that pot in the graphic) your positive peaks still get limiter-action because of voltage drop and reverse biased diode - but because of the diode - heavier limiter action would occur because the Negative peaks get clamped thru the direct "valve" action D501 does.
So when you "jumper" the diode (Short it out) - your positive peaks and negative peaks are treated the same - above I use a 100 ohm resistor - just for example.
In the above graphic - you can even play with the resistors and the diode in it's directional ability to limit and compress - to achieve special effects some liken to compressional effects.
Your second battle is the POWER you use arrives from a different source.
R166, and R165 - form a voltage divider circuit that "taps" power from the AM Pass transistors (AM Regulator) so when you try to "tone down" TR 24 using R130 and R131 - you are still dealing with a large reserve of power from the AM Regulator that powers the AMC / Limiter.
R166, a 3.3K (Orange-Orange-RED) resistor and R165 - a 1.5K (Brown - Green - RED) - these form a divider and tap which pares down the signal (Audio and carrier) power the AM Regulator sends to the Driver and Final and sends it to TR24's junction of R130 and R131 and VR12
But the power you're dealing with (From AM Regulator) is part of the mess you're having issues with.
R130 and R131 can only do so much, so you'll need to change (Raise) the value of R166 to as much as 22K to help reduce limiter "clamping" action and enjoy your radio more. Just reduce the power arriving from the AM Regulator that powers your TR24 circuit.