Well, the old 40GB 4G iPod (Thanks, Terry) finally died. It was only 3 1/2 years old. Symptoms were dead battery, not hard drive. The battery replacement instruction videos from OWC and ifixit.com both looked about the same and convinced me that I could replace the battery myself. So I did.

I wanted the tool set from Other World Computing so I bought the replacement battery at the same time. The replacement battery comes with two blue plastic tools for opening the case. The 11 piece tool kit comes with two green plastic tools, seven assorted small drivers, tweezers, and forceps.

The first thing that happened trying to open the iPod was that one of the blue plastic tools that came with the battery folded and broke. The plastic is very soft. So, I continued with the green plastic tools from the tool kit. Sucess!

Next, I broke the other blue tool trying to remove the glued-in battery. So, using both of the green tools and lots of patience, I popped it free. The Torx screws yielded to the driver and the magnetized tip prevented dropping the screw into the logic board. I removed the battery plug using the forceps rather than my fat fingers. Forceps really work well on those small plastic connectors.

Putting in the new battery, I found it fit snugly but with no problem. Forceps again made handling the small battery connector easy. I had to carefully route each individual wire to be outside the battery space, but that was not hard.

After replacing the two Torx screws and replacing the case, I immediately began listening to music.

Bottom line:
Battery Kit - Thumbs up for battery. Thumbs down for plastic tools.
Tool Kit - Thumbs up all the way. Recommended for serious techy types.