And so I did it.
Following the manual instructions on 76-81.19 is obviously straight forward, and special tool TMT13166 is not needed (just hold the glass).
Until step 10…
However, step 10 cannot be completed without removing two stoppers (one at the front of the carrier plate and one at the rear). These stoppers prevent the front and rear rollers from entering the openings where they need to be (all the way at the top), to disconnect the glass from the carrier plate. This step (9-b?) is missing from the manual.
Now, these 2 stoppers have been designed as a nasty joke to make life difficult: one simple bolt, through the plate, screwed onto a round slotted nut, yep, you read well, a ROUND f&%#@g nut.
The only way I could find to undo these 2 nuts was to execute 76.81.31 first. With the glass in place, that was not fun. Access to the rear top bolt is obstructed by the glass.
Annoyingly, once lose, the carrier plate has to be pried out of its position towards the inside of the car with a large screwdriver, slightly bending up the upper lip of the outside bodywork. This is by design: there are even 2 slots in the lip for that purpose!!
Once the carrier plate, still connected to the glass, is free, it can be lifted into the window opening and the hexagonal heads of the 2 stopper bolts can be accessed from behind the plate. The challenge then becomes to hold the round nuts to undo the bolts, 'cause those suckers did not come off without a fight.
Once the two buggers are off, it is easy to remove the glass first and the carrier plate last.
I foresee hours of fun ahead to put all this back in and adjust the whole shebang…
The front-most round nut stopper (grrrr)
The inside of the carrier plate, the glass plate flipped inside out to show the roller and the infamous round nut stopper put to the side.