I got my SSK in but there was no way the carrier pins were coming out. After several hours of massaging them back and forth about 30 degrees, I decided to give up before I broke the retaining clips off. Not sure who had mentioned it first, but removing the rear carrier mount completely(2 M10 nuts) makes it a piece of cake to raise the carrier enough to get the job done from inside the car.

I pretty much figured out I was in for a tough time when I could see the corrosion on the visible part of the pins - They are so swollen with corrosion, there is no way they are coming out of there unless the transfer case is dropped to be able to press them out from the inside.

I am convinced I need to replace all the bushings in the assembly as there is stll a lot of play in the carrier itself so I will need to try again at some point.

Only advice I can add is to use a rag under the entire work area per below to catch the inevitable dropped M3 screw. Of course, I fugured this out after I dropped/lost one of the screws. I need to go back in there to replace the original inner boot anyway so I will put the 6th screw in then.

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2005 X5 3.0 6 speed Manual