As someone who's ripped out a BUNCH of bushes over the years, I'd put money that those bushes won't be out in 30 minutes using that method.
What will get them out in that time frame is someone with a backhoe or a Mini-X
Yep! Check the capacitor first, should be about $30 and a hvac supplier should sell it to you. If not the cap, the motor is probably the next culprit and you can change that yourself also.
BTW non destructive testing, ie, NDI is basically using a machine to scan for cracks/corrosion/etc. Think X-Ray, MPI, etc...easy job. All the mechanics have to take everything off and get it out of the way so you can access it and then they have to put it all back together after you're done lol...