This being the first time I opened my iPod, it was super tight. Nothing plastic I had was strong enough; even my thumbnail just barely could get a sliver of separation, not big enough to wedge anything else in there. The sandwiched halves of the case chewed up my spudger pretty good, and so I actually resorted (slap on wrist) to a Liquitex acrylic-painting knife, kind of a superthin metal spatula, which worked perfectly. Just had to slide it in carefully. Unit is way out of warranty, though, so I wasn’t too concerned about some superficial damage to the edge of the plastic case front, which did in fact occur. Probably be easier next time around.

I actually ended up just taking the whole logic board & display out (had to remove a few extra T6 screws), so then I could use a spudger to just lever the battery out of place.