Yes, I ended up cutting the casing. because the way things go here at Rancho Snakebit, if I just yanked it up to free the bushing- I'd end up separating the case at some glued joint twenty feet down.....
And I didn't lose the well pump like I was really worried about.
Because there's a reason it's called Snakebit ranch.
I made sure to have the makeshift pipe vise secured before letting loose of the rigging.
And yes- it was schedule 80 PVC with corroded couplings where they threaded it together.
Once we finally got the pump out, I didn't notice till this morning when I found I got the wrong kind of PEX.
So I decided to call Gajeske and get some HDPE water pipe and the right fittings.
$326 for 500' of 1" and two compression adapters. The neighbor said he's buy the last 300 feet when I'm done. So actually it ended up being cheaper than the way I was going to do it.
Lastly, as I was looking at the old pump, I saw this....
That pump motor was only held on by one nut.
Don't know if that was the problem, but it's not anymore.