E39 6cyl oil pan gasket replacement illustrated

[Jason5driver]

Apologies for reviving an old thread, but I just ran into the same issue during the oil pan gasket job. I was able to to partially slide the shaft towards the firewall with a mallet (see attached pic), but there's more resistance than I expected. Were you able to separate the shaft from the rack and get the subframe to drop further? If so, was it difficult to reattach? Thanks in advance.

The subframe needs to be in place / not lowered before disconnecting the steering column link.

[Bmwe39528i1998]

Boring - remove all 10mm oil pan bolts, do not forget 2 that are under tranny bell housing

........

Did I miss something or how do you remove the bolts behind the bend of the oil pan behind transmission lines?



I spent an hour trying to get there...what's the magic?