Just to wrap this up (and hopefully be of some assistance to others on here for once)...

I was able to R&R the sender from the top side. Although my water bottle is relocated to trunk so perhaps that made it easier. I did remove the aux water pump and associated 2 hoses, unclipped the throttle cable and pushed it out of the way, and then removed the aft bolt on the throttle cable bracket and loosened the fwd 1 so I could swing bracket down and out of way.

All this provided a really clear shot at the sender on bottom of oil filter housing. I used 17mm wrench and it came right off. Interesting to note that the old sender was also VDO but had some kind of wax/gasket brownish material on the inside (engine side) which was all cracked - inevitably where there thing was leaking from. The new VDO sender did not have this gasket, all metal.

Anyways, thanks for all help, hopefully this thread will do someone else some good down the road.

Oh yeah, I didnt drain oil, and none came out (probably because car was jacked up on drivers side to make room for catch pan under car).

__________________
Paul
Benz-less
I need an SDL !