Greetings all!

About 1 year ago I purchased a used Whirlpool washer. I'm a poor college student, couldn't afford a new one, and the only place that worked out for my wife and me to rent had washer/dryer HOOKUPS but did not provide the machines. This is a top-loader machine that is very similar to all of Whirlpool's older models (and probably to the newer ones too, though I couldn't attest to that).

The problem I'm having is that the washer doesn't agitate, spin, or drain. During any of those cycles, I hear the motor spinning, but nothing happens.

As such, I suspect the differential drive is jammed or cracked, or the rubber coupling between the motor and transmission is loose, cracked, or shredded.

I'm in the process of digging in to the guts of the differential, but I'm stuck on the step of removing the pump cover.

I've got the metal casing of the washer off, and I've disconnected the electric wiring on the right side of the pump as you are looking at it from the front of the machine.

EVERY video I've watched on this so far says, "Oh, just wiggle the pump off!" This thing doesn't wiggle. It's bound up tighter than Scrooge's pocketbook. I even tried prying it with a hammer and with a screwdriver + mallet. Nothing is moving.

I read in one post somewhere in a YouTube comment that sometimes the pump and the motor are both metal parts, and if that metal gets wet from a small leak in the pump, the built up corrosion can fuse the parts together. Oh good.

Any idea on what I could do to get this thing off? I'm pulling so hard on the piece that I'm tilting the tub back as far as it will go, and then actually beginning to lift the machine off the ground. As such, I'm fairly certain I'm pulling hard enough.

tl;dr sumamry: pump cover won't budge, but I need to get to the differential. Thus 2 questions:

1.) Is there some better way to remove the cover than prying it with hammer or pry bar?

2.) If not, is there some way to access the differential from BEHIND the machine, like going in through the transmission instead of through the motor?

Many thanks for your assistance!