The other day I did a quick visual inspection of my old broken sump pump to see if maybe something had simply gotten jammed in there and if, by dislodging it, I might have a working backup. (I was following the suggestion of someone here, I think
@68bucks but I could be misremembering.)
I couldn't tell; the intake holes were small and there was some dried rusty stuff blocking my view. It was rusty and gross and I didn't have time so I set it aside for another day.
That day was today. I decided to partially disassemble it, thinking maybe I could get the cover off the bottom and get a good look in there.
I located three screws (really long threaded metal poles) holding the main part onto the bottom and loosened them. I heard a "gas escaping" sound and figured that was because of a pressure difference or something. Then once those screws were out I tried to jigger the body out of the base, and a kind of sheath came loose. It was full of water of course, which spilled out everywhere.
Only--April Fools!--it wasn't water, it was oil! All over my (osb-surfaced) workbench and my garage floor. So I got to spend a significant portion of my morning cleaning that up.
I did eventually get the base off to check for obstructions and there were none, so that increases the odds the thing is just plain broken anyway, but I didn't think I could get it back together and, uhh, properly lubricated again even if it wasn't.
For a second I considered taking it apart even more in case there's cool stuff I could salvage from it, but it was such an oily mess and I was kind of annoyed so it's back in the box waiting for trash day.