The battery replacement went off without a hitch, but now I have no speaker sound. I still have earpiece and headphones sound, but no speaker. I’m trouble shooting now, but does anyone have any ideas? I’ve cleaned my headphones jack, checked my ringer is on etc. etc. Doing the most recent software update now ( hadn’t done it yet), but could just replacing the battery cause my speaker to be damaged? I didn’t even touch anything near where the speaker is housed. ???

I too was able to skip steps 13-19, by securing the display at a 90 degree angle. I used a soup can with a microfiber cloth between the screen and the can. I secured it with a rubber band and worked very carefully. I do recommend heating the back of the phone as it made the adhesive come up with relative ease. You just have to be slow and apply constant pulling pressure, but lightly. I was able to remove the strips without removing the vibrator. I was going to remove the vibrator but the screws were unwilling to come out, so I just proceeded to removing the strips and had no issues. I expected this to be much more of a project than it was but had no problems or issues and it was a breeze. Now just waiting to see if the battery is good, but so far everything is fine. Phone came back on and everything is as it was before. No glitches or issues there either.

If you have patience and can be gentle and follow the instructions, you should be able to skip several steps.

I decided after reading many comments etc., that I agreed with your conclusions. I was going to remove the vibrator component, however the screws were not cooperating, so I proceeded with removing the adhesive. It went well and I had no issues.