[PeteyyPab]

Nate,

you will be good to go.

When you turn on the ignition the Gear ID switch (back of the actuator) will sense what gear it is in and move it to neutral. no adaptation for the gear id side.

[nateregouski]

PeteyyPab, you were right. After powering up there were a few clunks and noises and the car went into Neutral fine. I ran the adaptation with INPA and got a few error codes on the last set (Error 59 clutch control). Took it for a short drive and EML light was on and car was in snail mode. I went inside to troubleshoot, but when I came back out to reset the codes EML light went off and it drove like an angel. When I fired it up this morning no check engine or EML light either. So I'll re-run diagnostics again today and make sure all is well but at this point looks like all is well.

I am going to summarize some tough steps I encountered doing this job tonight and post to this thread. I greatly benefited from others input and want to further the cause. For the record, I had the broken compression spring that so many others have encountered, and also a rattle in the transmission area (rattling clutch fork I think). Both were resolved by this job.

[hemi8]

Worth every single solitary penny to have Frank Smith's shop replace the clutch. You really need a lift for this job unless you want to torture yourself.
After 192k the SMG clutch was still in great shape, the car was giving me a shutter coming out of first and reverse when the car was hot. Flywheel was shot which was causing the shutter, it has springs and rubber between the inner and outer parts and they were plain worn out. Replaced all the transmission springs as well, they were broken as expected. The slave cylinder could not handle the stiffness of the new clutch and took a dump immediately so that was replaced as well. So if you do this work on a high mileage car do yourself a favor and replace the flywheel and slave cylinder without question along with the clutch.
Still on the original SMG pump, recently moved to the drug bin and replaced the accumulator and the motor, bangs every gear harder than ever.

Mike

[E30User]

Thanks for this awesome writeup. As others have mentioned, the lack of pictures is fine once you get down there and follow the thoroughly written steps.

Originally Posted by rockdogz

Thank you for this DIY...

For anyone else who may be struggling to get the actuator rod dowel pin back in, I had to put a small screwdriver in the hole in the center of the actuator rod and rotate it a few degrees counter clockwise (it should only go one direction) in order for the hole to line up. The pin actually goes in rather smoothly after doing this...if you are really having to wedge/smack it back in, then the hole is not lined up so stop.

This was a big help to me. Putting some rotational tension on that rod really helped when removing, and reinstalling the dowel pin. For me, another thing that helped was having the actuator bolts removed before attacking. The extra millimeters of play on the actuator bracket let me get a better angle with my small allen key that I used to push out the pin.

Putting the pin back in was definitely harder for me, compared to removing it. I pushed from driver to passenger side when removing, and did the reverse when reinstalling. While the actuator is off, I think it's a good idea to try inserting the pin into rod alone to see what kind of tensions you'll be dealing with. For me, the pin doesn't easily slide through all the way. It slides in half way, and then I needed to squeeze with some needle nose locking pliers to have it "snap" into place. When it came time to reinstall the pin with the actuator in place, I was able to get it inserted half way. Since I knew the pin was partially in the rod at this point, I just used the pliers again to snap it through. The pin seems like something that should just slide through if perfectly aligned and everything's clean, but I just wasn't getting that.

[cborjon]

Great write-up. Anyone looking for pictures check out this thread.
http://www.m3forum.net/m3forum/showthread.php?t=550119

It does a good job of showing the tear down.

[aznniche]

I plan on replacing my SMG transmission with a donor car.

1. Can't I just leave the actuator in place and just remove the hydraulic lines attached to it? This way, I can pull the whole transmission out, install the new tranny, and hook up the lines again. I don't want to deal with removing the actuator if it isn't necessary.

2. Can the clutch reteach be done just with INPA?

[TTKlaus]

Hi all,

I just got through replacing the clutch on my 04 M3 SMG Convertible. It did not take me as long to do as the OP. Somewhere near 20h. Some thoughts.... The SMG shaft pin, try to take it out by pushing the pin closest to the SMG actuator out from the top with an angled thin hook tool. You may need to rotate the shaft a bit to make it easy. Of course, you have to remove the spring clip first. The top SMG bracket bolt was the toughest part to get out, it fits very tight and there isn't a lot of room. Make sure to check the detent compression springs. I did not check them while the transmission was out. After all was put back together the SMG calibration failed and shifting was slow. In addition I could not shift under load. The dealer told me I need a new transmission! I checked out the springs and it turns out I had a broken spring. A major pain!
Some things I skipped: I did not remove the radiator and fan. I did not remove the intake manifold. I reused the original clutch slave cylinder. Be careful to make sure the clutch slave rod is properly seated against the clutch arm.

Thanks for all the valuable info posted here!

Best of luck!

TTKlaus

[CheckABS]

This job is seriously a massive undertaking!

Top right E14 bolt was a huge pain in the rear!

I was going to skip taking off the IM/Fan, but I decided to do it so I could try to angle the motor. Harbor Freight was key today for the engine bar and a few extra extensions.

Hopefully I will drop the transmission out tomorrow and try to figure out the rest of this DIY.

Thanks for the helpful thread!

[sddynamix]

I can't believe its been almost a decade since I've done this. I'll be doing this again in a year or two! Car is currently at 206k miles.