How to remove transfer case motor on E70?

[VW-Fritzi]

I’m trying to remove the servo motor on the transfer case of my 2007 X5 4.8i E70, so I can replace the faulty gear. I’ve removed the 6 bolts holding the support beam for the transfer case, but there is very little room to move it out of the way, which means I can’t get enough access to the bolts holding the motor to the transfer case.

I’ve found a bunch of videos for doing this on other models, but they are all slightly different than the E70. And I can’t find any videos specific to the E70.

I’ve also removed some of the nuts holding up the edges of the heat shields, but that also doesn’t give me enough room to access the bolts on the motor. From the looks of it, I need to remove just about all of the plastic side panels under the car, and then remove nearly all of the heat shields just to get at the motor.

Am I missing something? Has anyone else done this on an E70?