By iRobot • Difficulty: Very difficult
Battery not lasting long? Swap it out.
- Insert a plastic opening tool into the seam between the front and back of the iPod.
- Insert another plastic opening tool into the seam between the front and back of the iPod, leaving at least 1.5 inches of space between the two tools.
- At an angle, carefully insert a putty knife about 1/8 inch into the seam between the two opening tools.
- Once the putty knife has cleared the lip of the rear panel, pivot the putty knife so that it is vertical, and carefully (but firmly) wiggle it straight down into the gap between the opening tools.
- Push with your fingers on the rear panel behind the putty knife to minimize bending. Slowly flex the putty knife, as shown in the picture, to ensure that most of the metal tabs on this side of the iPod are disengaged.
- Remove the putty knife from the iPod and reinsert it closer to the corner of the iPod, using the same wiggle method as before.
- Between the lock slider and headphone jack, insert a plastic opening tool into the seam between the front and back of the iPod.
- Near the center of the display, carefully insert a metal spudger into the gap created by the plastic opening tool.
- Using the metal spudger, disengage the single clip on the top of the iPod.
- Near the other top corner, insert an opening tool into the seam between the front and back of the iPod
- On the other side, insert an opening tool into the seam between the front and back of the iPod.
- Remove the plastic opening tool from the top corner and insert it into the seam between the front and back of the iPod, leaving at least 1.5 inches of space between the two tools (as done on the other side).
- At an angle, carefully insert a putty knife about 1/8 inch into the seam between the two opening tools.
- Once the putty knife has cleared the lip of the rear panel, angle the putty knife so that it is vertical, and carefully (but firmly) wiggle it straight down into the iPod via the gap between the plastic opening tools.
- Push with your fingers on the rear panel behind the putty knife to minimize bending. Ever so slightly flex the putty knife to ensure that most of the metal tabs on this side of the iPod are disengaged.
- Carefully insert a metal spudger into the area near the stubborn metal clip.
- Gently wiggle the metal spudger down so that it is all the way in the rear panel.
- Gently begin to disengage the clip from the front panel.
- Continue to push up on the front panel with the metal spudger until the metal clip releases.
- Grasp the front panel assembly with one hand and the rear panel with the other.
- Gently (GENTLY) disengage the remaining clips on the rear panel by pulling the tops of the front and rear panels away from each other (think of the bottom of the iPod as a hinge), taking great care not to damage the ribbon cables holding the two halves together.
- Use angled tweezers or an opening tool to lift the brown lock latch straight up by 1 mm. Make sure you pull from both sides of the latch.
- Grasp the flex cable with your fingers or tweezers and pull it straight up to disconnect it.
- Place the rear panel next to the iPod, being careful not to strain the orange headphone jack cable.
- Lift the hard drive up with one hand so you can access the headphone jack ribbon beneath.
- Use a spudger to flip up the plastic tab holding the headphone jack ribbon in place. The tab will rotate up 90 degrees, releasing the ribbon cable.
- Slide the orange headphone jack ribbon out of its connector.
- The rear panel is now free from the iPod.
- Now to repair the damage caused by liberating the internal parts of the iPod Classic! It is highly likely that at least one of the metal clips in the rear panel has been bent upward. These clips must all be pointing downward in order to reinstall the rear panel.
- Take the broad, flat side of the metal spudger and push the clip down, taking care not to tear the thin metal rail from the rear panel. Alternatively a pair of flat pin nosed pliers can be used to reduce risk of slipping and damaging the headphone jack.
- On a clean, hard surface, lay the rear panel on its side. Carefully but firmly push down on it, rolling the entire lip side back into its proper spot.
- Use a spudger to lift the battery and the attached orange cable out of the iPod. If you have a 160 GB iPod, the battery will be thicker than the one pictured.
To reassemble your device, follow these instructions in reverse order.