I've come across a machine that was in a flooded basement, but kept above the water line. The motor looks to be a generic-like industrial type of about 1/3hp. It's seized, probably from the humidity but there's no visible corrosion from peeking inside the bell on one end.
It there some less-hard way to try to separate the stator from the rotor, aside from taking the bells off, banging on it with a hammer until something bends or the hammer slips and then tossing out to get a new motor?
Again, the appears great- there's no visible corrosion, but something has to be going on in the gap in order to seize it.