135i Spec clutch / MFactory SMFW install

[i_love_cars]

Figured it couldn't hurt to document a bit of this here. There is limited N55 clutch install info online, most of it is around the N54. I studied up on the utterly awesome DIY video that HPF put out on doing an n54 135i clutch a few years back. There's nothing tricky but they just provide a great order of operations for removal of parts that speeds things along. It helps when you don't need to do much assessment while you're under the car to take stock of what bolts and pieces need to come off. 
 
So all my parts finished arriving yesterday and I originally was planning to start on Wednesday night with a 4 day weekend ahead of me. F that. I couldn't wait. 

 
First thing I noticed was that getting the cowl off for the N55 to get back by the firewall for the top bellhousing bolt is easier than the N54. There are a couple of harnesses that have to be detached on the N54 and those harness don't exist on the N55. Just popped the brake fluid reservoir cover, remove 2 bolts and plastic clips from the cabin filter, 6 bolts for the cowl underneath and you're done. 
 
Second thing is on the N54 you need to unclip/label the o2 sensors as they are mounted to the transmission housing. This is not so on the N55. There are fewer things in the way on the N55 just in general from what I'm seeing. 
 
So last night I got the exhaust/cross member, heatshields, drive shaft, and cowls hiding the firewall out of the way:
 

 
Took about 1.5 hours on the floor but with air tools, and by the time I got to the guibo bolts for the driveshaft it was too late to use the air gun as my daughter sleeps in the room above the garage, so I spent 15 minutes getting those out with hand tools. So it woulda been faster if I could grabbed an air gun. Oh well. My point is, I love working on a car that hasn't been molested by Wisconsin winters. Everything came off very easily. 
 
Tonight I just need to remove the shift linkage and unmount the slave cylinder and then the transmission can be dropped out. TJ graciously let me borrow his E18 socket last night which apparently is needed for the bell housing bolts. Hopefully I'll have the trans, clutch, flywheel, pilot bearing, and rear main seal out tonight. More updates to come. There may be comical photos of me trying to get the trans housing out given that I don't have a lift (yet....)
 
6/9/2015 Update:
 
So I was completely on target tonight until......the transmission is currently only held on by 4 remaining bell housing bolts. I had to put the jack under it for support and call it an early night. Why? Well, TJ is awesome and loaned me that E18 socket but it's too fat. The heads of the bell housing bolts are too fucking close to the housing itself so I don't have enough clearance to get the socket over the head. God dammit.
 
I will be stopping at Northern Tool tomorrow morning, and failing that, Harbor Freight down the road in Dirty Stallis. As long as I can get a thinner profile E18 socket I'll have the trans dropped momentarily after work tomorrow and am expecting everything to be back together and on the road again sometime on Thursday.

6/10/2015 Update:

The E18 I got from Harbor Freight worked and was able to lower the transmission. Not quite enough clearance to get it out from the car so I just shoved it off to the side. Still have plenty of room for the new throwout. Currently taking a break with the clutch now off, the flywheel bolts are being a pita. Going at them with a 20" breaker bar and they aren't budging. I don't have a good way to lock the crank in place from the back so I was trying to use my hand to stabilize the flywheel. I'm currently waiting for my air compressor to fill up so I can just get them with the impact driver. Usually it's just faster to use my breaker bar rather than waiting on the compressor but for FW bolts it seems like air is probably the best answer. 

6/11/2015 Update:

So there is a minor problem. I am waiting on a call back from MFactory to explain to them that their SMFW for supposedly "09+" 135/335 does NOT work on the N55 without modification. I have deduced this after looking at Suspenceful's thread for the pics of his transmission and OEM clutch on his older N54, and talking with someone I know on N54tech who has a 2011 135i like me and installed the same parts I am - he actually had to modify his flywheel from MFactory to get it to work. 

So, here is a picture of the flywheel that MFactory sent me next to my stock N55 flywheel. Notice that the MFactory flywheel has a shaft sticking out of it, compared to the N55 flywheel which has the pilot bearing in it:

Here is what my N55 driveshaft looks like (notice the small shaft - this is something BMW flip-flopped when they went from the N54 to the N55 design):

Now, compare to Suspenceful's N54 stock flywheel and transmission:

MFactory sells 2 different part numbers of SMFW for the 135i/335i, the first one is for 06-08 because that era of the N54 used an 8-bolt pattern for the flywheel. In 2009, BMW changed this to a 6 bolt pattern, which prompted MFactory to update their design and add a new part number for "09+" which has the 6 bolt pattern. 

This bolt pattern is the same as the N55, but remember N55 came along in 2011, and BMW changed the design of both the flywheel and the transmission because they basically reversed the pilot bearing and the input shaft. 

Look at this DIY video on installing a pilot bearing on an N54 and you will see it goes in the shaft, as opposed to in the N55 where it sits in the actual flywheel itself (as you can see in my photos above): 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iE1JUe1wI_s

So, the guy I talked to on N54 tech who has a 2011 135i like me, he actually had to hammer out the shaft that came attached to the flywheel from MFactory, in order to be able to insert his new pilot bearing and connect the trans back into the flywheel. So I'm going to end up having to do the same thing, and pray I don't warp the material. 

EDIT: I talked to MFactory and confirmed the inconsistency. They are going to go back to the manufacturer and probably at the very least include some sort of documentation with the product saying that if you have a 2011+ model year, then you'll have to punch out the included shaft that's attached to their FW. 

So I definitely busted a pilot bearing getting it into the flywheel. I was in an impatient mood given the day's events so far. LUckily my Spec clutch kit came with a pilot bearing so I had a spare to use and got that one in no problem. 

The flywheel mounted fine, clutch is all torqued down now, but I had to do a makeshift alignment job because the clutch alignment tool that Spec gives you is for the N54 i.e. there is a hole in the end of the alignment tool for the input shaft stub to go into (from the flywheel). Obviously because the pilot bearing is in the flywheel on the N55 I couldn't do that. I contemplated cutting off the shaft stub from the piece I hammered out of the MFactory flywheel, but I thought it'd be easier if I just measured the diameter of the hole and got a deep socket to match. So that's what i did and just fed the socket into the pilot bearing to balance the alignment tool as I lined up the clutch disc.

All 3 slots on the edge of the flywheel where you can see the clutch disc mating to the clutch look and feel flush, it looks good in the center, and the alignment tool is freely moving in and out with the socket to the pilot bearing. So I'm feeling pretty good about lining up the transmission tomorrow morning. 

6/12/2015 Update:

The car is put back together and I took it for a 10 mile test drive. Pedal travel is same as it was for stock, feels a bit more solid, but not tougher to push really, just...solid. I really like the feel. Obviously I'm babying the hell out of it right now but everything seems to be as expected. 

Gear rattle is a bitch but I really don't care. I bought my car for performance, not to say "Hi I'm a faggoteer who spends a lot of money and drives a bmw, luxury this, luxury that where's my grey poupon" type bullshit.

[suspenceful]

Nice! Pilot bearing is a bitch, FYI. Required a lot of power tools and unconventional methods to get mine out. Took forever.

[YoungCR]

Great to see these "new" cars being worked on at home

[B C]

Agreed

[i_love_cars]

suspenceful said:

Nice! Pilot bearing is a bitch, FYI. Required a lot of power tools and unconventional methods to get mine out. Took forever.

I've never encountered a vehicle that I couldn't get a pilot bearing out of in under 5 minutes using Wonder Bread, a 3/8" extension, and a hammer. As more and more bread gets compacted it acts as a hydraulic press and eventually pushes the pilot bearing out. 

So don't scare me, bruh

[patsbimmer1]

I have never heard of this bread method.  Just watched a youtube video about it.  Holy crap... I can't believe that works!

[i_love_cars]

Stopped at Harbor Freight this morning and they had a 3/8" drive set of E sockets that goes up to E18. Thinner profile on the socket so I'm hopeful this will fit. Only cost 10 bucks to boot. The 1/2" drive really pushes out the girth of the socket. Fingers crossed, otherwise I'll be supremely emo tonight and bitching on the forums

[andyhundley]

BEEMO!!

[i_love_cars]

updates !!! important update for N55 owners looking to buy MFactory SMFW.

[suspenceful]

i_love_cars said:

I've never encountered a vehicle that I couldn't get a pilot bearing out of in under 5 minutes using Wonder Bread, a 3/8" extension, and a hammer. As more and more bread gets compacted it acts as a hydraulic press and eventually pushes the pilot bearing out. 

So don't scare me, bruh

So... did you get it out yet?

i_love_cars said:

updates !!! important update for N55 owners looking to buy MFactory SMFW.

I hope you called and requested an N55 assembly. I know they are known for their N54 units.

[patsbimmer1]

Nice job man!

[B C]

Meanwhile in Jordan's garage:

[dastuz]

Nice write up. I expect a test run as soon as youve hit break in. I get my car back this weekend, so timing should be right for some modified bmw fun...

[i_love_cars]

suspenceful said:

So... did you get it out yet?

I hope you called and requested an N55 assembly. I know they are known for their N54 units.

yah everything is all good. I hammered out the piece on the new flywheel and hammered in a new pilot bearing. I did talk to MFactory, but I'm not holding out much hope because the guy on N54tech that i've been talking to (BostonShant) has the same setup on his 2011 135i, had to do the same thing, and he also called MFactory and let them know and nothing changed. 

I also am going to talk to TopGearSolutions because they advertise the Spec Stage 2+ clutch SB533H part number as being for 2007-2012 model years, and while the clutch technically works, as I noted above in my main post - the alignment tool doesn't work on N55 without modifying it. The socket approach that I did isn't perfect because the socket isn't a 100% fit in the alignment tool so you still have to eyeball a little bit and be really good about evenly tightening down the clutch disc. The only way to make the tool work perfectly is to have an input shaft tip to glue in to the alignment tool.

[suspenceful]

Glad to see it's back on the ground and you're going through the gears. Interesting to see my build thread to be of use! The chatter is 'meh', but I have the same mentality about it.

Hope to see this car in person sometime. Love the color.

[YoungCR]

Wish you could've parked in Scooters, but great chatting with you for a bit.

[i_love_cars]

Just come to cars and coffee in July and you can see my car, Chris

[i_love_cars]

suspenceful said:

Glad to see it's back on the ground and you're going through the gears. Interesting to see my build thread to be of use! The chatter is 'meh', but I have the same mentality about it.

Hope to see this car in person sometime. Love the color.

yes your thread was immensely helpful. Those few pictures really solidified my theory about both the flywheel and the Spec alignment tool. I have no doubt that we'll have a meet at some point where we can both attend