What of the below procedures takes 20 min? or which one should I apply to check or replace the front drive shaft with a repaired one?

1. pulling the exhaust
2. pulling a couple of large heat shields
3. pulling the rear drive shaft
4. remove the transfer case crossmember
5. split the trans and case to get a front drive shaft out

or this one:
1. remove the front stiffener plate
2. undo the bolts at the front driveshaft flexdisk
3. slide the shaft backwards until the flexdisc can slide out (it has a centering device that sticks into the flange on the front differential preventing it from just dropping out).

That's a rhetorical question, right?

It looks like, doesn't it? :) I found these procedures on another thread and either of them will take me more than 20 minutes :). It might be obvious for most of you here but just to double check before I go under the car, is it safe to say that procedure 2 is my best bet? I know Tom's repaired drive shaft is longer and procedure 2 might not work for it.

Procedure 1 can't be done in 20 minutes. Go with Procedure 2, and don't try and beat the flat rate time, just go slowly and carefully.

fmugur, the second process is to inspect the shaft. It can be done with basic sockets and wrenches. A novice, diy'er should be able to get it out in an hour. You would not have to remove the case to do the inspection, but you will have to, to install one of my repaired shafts.

Thanks rm572, I'll give it a check. Was told last night by a local BMW tech that the T-case on the 4.6iS was different in some way, but he didn't elaborate. I need to research on that...

That is one of the reasons I have been doing the shafts as repairs, I can verify that you get your original shaft back. So far all of the shafts have been the same. I believe it is internal parts that are different and the shaft is the same. I'll have to look up the salvage yard interchange to see if there are different shafts in the newer models.

OK here is a question for you guys. Based on this thread it looks like if the front drive shaft is shot the the X needs to be towed. In a different thread I learned that you can release the front wheels by unplugging a connector (I assume a TC connector but I will look it up). Today I could have tried it since I took the drive shaft out to check the splines but this thought came to late in my mind. I will have to send my FDS to Tom for repair and I guess I can use the X while the drive shaft is being repaired. Any thoughts?

Here is the thread I was referring to.
http://www.xoutpost.com/bmw-sav-foru...nt-wheels.html

I wouldn't try it.

Do you have a 2004 onwards X5 with x-drive, or the earlier model without x-drive? The earlier one doesn't have that actuator and harness.