Oh and for anyone that's going to attempt this; get heat resistant tape. I got some on Aliexpress when I ordered batteries. It was like $3 USD. Worked wonderfully. Didn't melt anything and somehow everything went swimmingly for my first attempt. Word of warning though be super careful with the ribbon cable; I'm guessing that I damaged the ribbon attached to the end cap on my first attempt because that AirPod plays very quietly in the ear but loudly outside of the ear. Or it could be that when I inserted the battery it wasn't perfectly lined up so maybe its shorting something. Just take it slow, use heat resistant tape, and rely more on isopropyl to pull the battery out than heat. The battery in the first one I did came out with just isopropyl and the heat of my hand.

Hmm. I have 3 pairs of gen 2 airpods, did the replacement on the first set and the first AirPod I did (the right one) plays loudly out of the outer mesh now and quietly inside the ear, like its inverted on the speakers. The left one is normal. Not sure whats up with that. Maybe I damaged the ribbon cable? I don't understand how that would invert the speakers but still play out of both but oh well. I guess it was good practice.