A word of warning. If whether you are lowering the engine or raising the frame, DO NOT forget to unplug the engine temp sensor. It will stretch and break the wires and you don't want that. See it circled in red in the attached pic. It is the bottom one of the 4 under the Tupperware panel.
Yes, follow the manual(s) very carefully. I used both Clymer and the BMW REPROM. Clymer is good for more detailed instructions and advice on special tool substitutes, but jumps all over the place from chapter to chapter and has often has the “assembly is the reverse of disassembly” which is generally true, but often hard to follow. The BMW “manual” CD is much better as a checklist as it shows all operations in a linear form including re-assembly. I personally used the BMW manual much more than the Clymer as it is just so much easier to follow.
Also, as tedious as it will be, I would suggest you read all 400 and some (I think anyway) posts in my thread. Many relate to other things I did such as TBI cleaning, O2 sensor replacement, crankcase ventilation manifold replacement which you can skip, but you may want to read some of the challenges I encountered and how I worked around them. Probably the most frustrating was getting the transmission to clear the frame and drop down. Some recommended using brute force and just getting a pry bar and forcing it, but my experience says that is seldom the right approach. Even though I had followed JZ’s tip to replace two of the engine mount bolts with small 1/4” bolts (which I highly recommend), I still could not get the transmission to clear the frame and drop down. After pondering a day or two, I lowered the Jack just a little so it was maybe 1/8” below the transmission. I think gently lifted on the valve cover and that slight clockwise rotation caused the transmission to slide past the frame and back onto the jack. Easy peasy and I was off and running again with no need to pry anything hard and risk cracking a frame or transmission housing.
As you can tell above, I did the “block the rear subframe and lower the engine/transmission” method as it was easier to do on my lift. However, I have often wondered if the method recommended by both BMW and Clymer might have worked more easily. They both, as I recall anyway, recommend blocking under the engine and raising the rear subframe. I suspect that may let the frame move around more and avoid the clearance issue between frame and transmission. In theory, the methods should be the same, but I am not sure in practice that they are, but it has been done both ways and will work.
My other recommendation is to take LOTS of pictures of every connector you remove and all bolts and linkages such as the shift linkage and routing of all wires and hoses. I thought I had grossly over killed it with pictures, but during assembly I still had things I had missed and had to ask here or use my best guess during assembly. Hopefully, you can put it off a awhile, but once the clutch starts slipping, it won’t heal itself. I rode mine for a couple of years with the oil contaminated clutch, but finally it got to where I could no longer safely pass vehicles or climb long interstate grades in 5th gear so I bit the bullet and did the job. And, as Gordon said, you really should take the bike apart before you order your parts unless you want to spend the money and buy every possible part in advance to save some downtime. For example, I ended up needing all three rotating shaft seals for my transmission, but I did not need a slave cylinder or engine output shaft seal and mine is still going strong 30,000 miles later. I did replace the o-ring as it is know to fail, but mine had not failed and likely could have been re-used, although I probably damaged it during disassembly. My issue was entirely leaking transmission seals and not leaking engine oil or clutch fluid.
