I made a few mistakes along the way but I did get it open and it still works.
It seems that Amazon ran out of double sided tape after they stopped K4 production.
But their glue pot is still full.
The highlighted sections are in the same order as the pictures attached.
peel-1
Starting at an upper corner -
Using a thin, plastic tool (or credit card) -
Work down one side, work across the top, work down the other side.
Leave a trail of <something> (shown, glossy faced cardboard) behind so that the bezel glue doesn't grab the body again.
peel-2
Leaving the bottom for the last peel&pry effort, (gently) rip that little sucker off the face of the body.
unscrew
The Kindle hardware assembly is held in the bottom (or back) case pan by 10, T-5 (torx) socket head screws.
The red dots are just below the ones you want to remove.
In the following, I did the "right thing" for the wrong reason.
Work on these devices long enough and a person has to get lucky sometime.
pry-it
Using your thin, stiff, plastic tool (or strips of credit card) - -
Work up the two upper corners enough so that you can "bridge" the corner radii with the cards.
This leaves the e-ink display frame sitting on top of the plastic wedges, which are resting on the top edge of the case pan.
Thou shall be gentle from this point on - since bending the e-ink frame is detrimental to the display's operation.
It probably will not do the touch screen any good either.
clips
I thought I was separating double sided tape, but not so, Amazon is using interlocking, hook style, clips.
clip-pts
The matching hook style clips on the underside of the e-ink frame.
Note that you can't just slide something in there to use as a "release tool".
The least of the problems is that the battery is in the way.
The worst of the problems is that the display cable is in the way. Rip that up and you have KT2 spare parts.
Set aside all thoughts of brute force and reach for the hair dryer.
Place Kindle face down on soft cloth, heat outside of the case bottom until it is uncomfortably hot to the touch.
Work down either side with more plastic shims -
The hot case back will allow the plastic hooks to flex enough to release their hold on the e-ink frame.
BIG NOTE: You may have to alternate heating the backside of the case and the working of the shims down the side several times.
Expect a few loud, sharp, cracks and pops.
Those should be the clips releasing, not your e-ink display / touch screen being destroyed.
bottom-right
Here you will find two, unpopulated, pad sites.
The serial port connector pad (Kindle functions in red added) and a place for the hardware reset button.
bottom-left
Here you will find two more, unpopulated, pad sites.
One for the power on/off toggle button and one for the switch to enable booting from the USB device.
And in the left-most corner of the board, the Wifi antenna.
Note that is the right-most corner of the Kindle when looking at the display.
usb-adpt
This is the 1v8-serial to micro-USB connector, adapter board.
Viewed from the underside.
Note the "Control Bit" outputs (CB0 ... CB3) -
those can be controlled via the USB serial cable and look like just the thing to replace the (non-existent) buttons with.
(Well, the USB boot switch connections might be a bit tricky, but the rest should be straight forward.)
My next goal is to find a place (hopefully inside) to install this board.
- - - - -
For another take(down) on the 7th gen. rip-it-apart story, see:
https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Kind...Teardown/29802