doubleclutch

@aadeshina - That’s an excellent suggestion. I took your advice, and tried it with a can of MG Chemicals “403C Super Cold Spray”, which I had on hand for other electronics work. It worked very well — it froze the adhesive to the point where it was quite easy to work the plastic iFixit cards under the batteries, and pry them loose.

I like this freeze technique much better than the volatile, flammable, risky solvent approach for removing the batteries. I did however find the solvent useful for softening and removing the residual adhesive remaining in the case after the old batteries were removed.

There are many brands of aerosol freeze sprays available on Amazon, DigiKey, Mouser, etc.

While it may not be necessary to remove the left and right speakers, doing so will make it much easier to get at (and under) the end batteries and their adhesive pads. Also, by removing the speakers, you also get them out of harm’s way while you wrestle with loosening the batteries’ adhesives.

I recommend removing the speakers and their connectors as described in the iFixit instructions.

A good technique for starting to thread the screws when replacing them is to position and align the screw, and with the driver, gently turn the screw in the REMOVAL direction until you feel and hear a slight click. This click happens when the leading thread of the screw drops off of the leading edge of the thread in the hole — this is the point at which the threads are properly positioned for engagement. You can now turn the driver and screw in the TIGHTENING direction. This technique will help prevent accidental “cross-threading” of the screw, which will damage the threads permanently.

Note that this is a useful technique when installing ANY threaded fastener.

Note that the eight 3mm screws have a shoulder under the head, while the two 2.3mm screws are “full thread”, i.e., there is no shoulder under their heads. It’s important to put the two screws with no shoulder at the hinge of the cover.

All ten screws require a P5 Pentalobe screwdriver, preferably with a magnetized tip to help hold and position the screw.

All of the screws have blue “Loctite” thread locker compound on their threads. This is to help prevent the screws from working loose and falling out. Don’t attempt to clean the Loctite from the screws — leave it in place, and it will continue to help prevent the re-inserted screws from working loose.

When replacing the bottom cover, it is a good technique to insert and BEGIN tightening all ten screws BEFORE fully tightening any one screw. After all the screws have been started, then go around and finish tightening all of them. By doing this, you make it easier to feel that each screw has been started properly, and is not “cross-threaded”.