Yeah, trust me I've looked at the way it's being installed several times lol. The thing is, there's only one way it can be installed (at least up to the point where it stops working). There are alignment dowels, specific component shapes, etc that keep the orientation correct and the motor wires have to be routed a specific way for it to fit together.

In the attached picture, the motor will turn with the assembly like that. It'll also turn when i put those two pieces together, and the gears in that assembly will all rotate, no problem. But if I put a small amount of pressure with my thumb and pointer finger to sandwich those two pieces together until they're seated, the motor stops. It doesn't take much at all, and when you put the full housing together, there's definitely a bit of compression on that assembly. Regarding the electrical connection, the leads snap into the motor with a positive click. Other than that, the only connection I've messed with is the plug on the other end and I made sure that's secure.

Attached Images

 

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2006 X5 4.8is