I've got the 3 up on jackstands and I've realized how much of a pain in the ass this is going to be.
- The 3 sits lower than any other car I've ever owned. Even with the front subframe foisted up on my jackstands (four notches above collapsed, too) I've barely got enough room to slide my gargantuan melon underneath the frame rails at the transmission. Getting my hands up in there with the rest of my body is going to be a hell of an exercise.
- I have to remove the entire exhaust system for the transmission to come out. And although the flange bolts are easily seen from underneath the car, I'm sure they're going to be a huge mess to actually unscrew.
- The Torx bolts that hold the bell housing to the block are actually Torx heads, not machine screws with Torx slots as I had assumed from the description. This means I'm going to have to go buy at least one Torx socket because who the hell keeps a set of Torx sockets around?
- I've realized that I'd be an idiot not to change the rear main seal while I've got the clutch off, so that means I'm going to have to pull the flywheel and possibly the oil pan. And if I pull the oil pan, that means I need to pull the front crossmember. Lovely.
- My garage floor is covered in oil spots from the coincidentally leaky rear main seal on the Mercedes. Also lovely.
So this is going to be entertaining. Thankfully I had to reposition the car before I got started, because the horrific noise eminating from the throwout bearing has hardened my resolve to actually pull this thing apart and see in what condition this thing really is.
P.S. The picture is from quite a while ago. And is captioned, "Hi"
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