As the old joke goes, my operation on my iPod was a success but the patient died. That is: I got the case open, found the broken connections, re-soldered them, closed the case, went to start up the iPod, and couldn’t get it past the Apple logo on the splash screen, even to do a system test. Reopening the iPod found no obvious damage, but I still couldn’t get anything working. So either I messed up the machine with some cack-handed soldering, I somehow damaged the hard drive, or there were bigger problems that surfaced only when I disassembled the unit. So take some caution when voiding your warranty.
It will likely be a few months before I can replace the iPod. In the meantime I’m enjoying more CDs in my car (and enjoying airplane rides much less).