clickokemail, if I remember right, the upper rim that houses the firewire connector, headphone port and hold slider are held in place by a number of metal clips. You should just have to unclip it. Do make sure that there are no anchors to the logic board. The firewire port is soldered onto the logic board in nine places. Four, at the corners of the firewire port, and six thin leads that come off the bottom of the port. It will be tough to find the part, you might have to scrounge from a broken one of eBay or Craigslist etc. Sometimes, you can find them at Mouser or Digikey. Of course, there are places like this, that still repair the iPod for you.