2005 4.4i required tools for intermediate levers

[johnnyzcar]

I plan on changing out one side of my intermediate levers.
I have not seen many howtos except for service bulletin that's out there.
It lists a lot of special tools and after seeing the Jamaican mechanic use a shoestring to lock the cam and eccentric shaft on a 318i I figure there has to be somewhere in between buying all the tools on the TSB and using a shoe string

So my question is do I need to lock the motor down at TDC as if I am doing a timing job and use cam locking tools or can the levers be changed without messing with timing?