Last night, our washing machine stopped draining. With a 3 month old (in cloth diapers) this is a problem. I wheelbarrowed the wet load to a neighbors (thankfully it was just towels), then started googling. When I tried draining, I smelled a bit of burning, so it seemed like a bad drain pump. I have a friend who works at an appliance store, so I took the pump out (easy, but make sure you have towels / a wet vac handy, even if the washer looks empty) and he tested it. Sure enough, it was fried. He sold me a replacement at cost ($45 -- could have got a cheaper one on Amazon that wasn't OEM, but I didn't want to chance it AND I didn't want to wait) and I put it in and am washing diapers as we speak.
I was certainly nervous the first time we tried it (a small load of just water) but everything stayed dry.
This is my first appliance repair (other than computer stuff) so anyone could do it. Oh, and I asked my friend how much it would have cost to get someone from his shop to come fix it. He said they would normally charge $100 for labor, and the part would cost $75 "on the road" (as opposed to its $65 list price).
I used this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utZmMq_ULwoAnd this video was a bit more helpful in terms of getting the front panel off:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJBdwhGqL4Y