RB, I'm not gonna say I told you so... Just Kidding buddy.
Good luck with everything. I find that cussing and working on cars go hand and hand, especially on the blind stuff. A small c-clamp or a long slender punch rod if clearance allows, should do the trick on that upper clip.

If you haven't installed the UUC shift rod yet, could you compare/measure it to the picture below? I'm curious as to the length of UUC's rod from the bottom of the pivot to the lower bushing and the inverse measurement from the top of the pivot to the top of the shifter rod. Just wanted to see the proportions. Seems like I read somewhere that you get about a 30% percent reduction in throw. I wanted to see if I can get an approximate "sweet spot" with my Schiedmann set-up to start with and go forward from there. I'm about two weeks out on my short shifter. Adding a 2" extension and about an additional 15 degrees of bend on the Schmiedmann shifter to approximate the stock shifter height and position.

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2005 X5 3.0, 6MT, Alpine White on Truffle Brown, Sport, Preim, and Cold Weather, Alpina Stainless Headers, AFe Intake, UUC SSK, OEM 87's, 3.64 Differential Swap,Performance Modified Euro 2 Tune, UUC LTW Flywheel and HD clutch, Bilstein B12 Suspension kit
Future mods ZHP/Schrick Cam Shaft upgrade, Operation code name:Doppelschrauben-Kompressor

Wife's Ride: 2011 e70 X5 351 M///Sport.

Also in the fold: 2004 X3 3.0, 6MT, Black Sapphire on Terracotta, port, Premium, Cold Weather.