Had everything apart 3 times. Checked and rechecked torque settings. Didn’t notice anything out of sorts. After the third time with the same results I decided to call a pro and took it in to a local German specialist. I guess I missed the part where the axle somehow separated from the CV joint. It’s now toast. I wouldn’t warn anyone away from the 2x4 method - it still makes sense to me. Also, I could now change all 4 shocks out in about 3 hours, which, uh, has no practical application for me. Not sure how this happened but just seems like a bad stroke of luck. Car will be fixed in a few hours and everything else checked out so I hope to be back on the road soon.