I have just replaced the passenger side front wheel bearing assembly on my E39; and have a few pointers for those who are interested. Only took me 25 minutes to do the passenger side (with a hoist and air tools, mind you)

#1 - a normal 3/8 drive 18mm socket can be ground down to fit between the bolt and bottom of the shock. Just grind down the edge of the drive end of the socket, from a sharp corner to a round corner and it works perfectly. Plus, no need to find a stubby 18mm socket.

#2 - mark the shock/knuckle joint locations relative to each other to use as witness marks later. Then loosen the pinch bolt that squeezes the knuckle around the shock. Pry between the bottom of the shock and the lower control arm nut to slide the shock bottom up out of the knuckle a little. Only need to slide it up 1-1/2" so you can easily get at the bottom bolt blocked by the bottom of the shock. Then use a normal 18mm socket to remove the previously blocked bolt. After you have reinstalled all the wheel bearing to knuckle bolts. Place a jack/jack stand/solid object under the lower control arm and lower to car to slide the shock back down into the knuckle and line up the witness marks made earlier. I just hit the bottom of the lower control arm ball joint area with my rubber mallet, until the shock had slid into the knuckle enough that my witness marks lined up. What ever works for your situation.

Figuring this out only added about 10 minutes or so, just depends how mechanically inclined you are. The driver side will be much faster now that I have this figured out. Great write up cnn, hopefully my insight helps others.