When the body work was done the 5 speed was already part of the plan so the BFH work was included. All relevant threads were studied and Parts gathered along with a transmission lift. Nothing left to chance so I thought. I even took a 5 minute drive to the local BMW dealership to talk to the foreman and came away feeling confident.

To be sure I hung out with my local independent shop manager and watched him prepare to install one in this 

Again I left with confidence.

But reality bites...

jgerock reminded me to lengthen the reverse switch wiring (wasn’t on the punch list) so I did that.

I took my time with the pressure plate + clutch torquing (1 turn at a time on each bolt diagonally), 

Then I was ready.

Box on lift, forward, up, input shaft too close to springs, back, bumping tunnel, down, snag plate lip, back and down, too far left, wth I’m moving in the wrong direction. Ok, up, forward, stuck on tunnel again, down, right, up, check input shaft placement, up, shove, crush reverse switch blade connector ...

Aargh@$67hg#!!?!!!

4 days later new switch arrives, along with 

the 2 quarts of Redline MTL I forgot to put in the gearbox.

Yesterday, went smoother though it still required a bit of adjusting positions and some physical effort. As Zaza Pachulia once said “nothing easy, NOTHING EASY “