For the MacBook Core 2 Duo Santa Rosa/Penryn: the inverter cable is a bit tricky. I was fooled into thinking that there were pins which went INTO the inverter cable. Because of this, I was afraid of lifting up on the cable (off the board), but this is what you actually must do to separate them.

For clarification, here's a pic (low-res, sorry) of the inverter cable disconnected from it's on-board plug: http://lh4.ggpht.com/_l0f6yKkaxDU/S0FOHS...