I am back to heating with (recently) dead trees instead of long dead dinosaurs.

Amazon delivered the cheapie Chinese motor a day early….

And it was all I expected:

Cheaply made, poor fit and finish, mounting holes large and out of spec, fasteners that were non standard, screws that seem to be neither metric or english in size….

Having said that, it was cheap, arrived early, runs well and true, and works.

It is, I think, a (really cheaply made) copy of an AO Smith motor….optimized for cost rather than quality and longevity.

When the real motor arrives, I will keep it as a spare.  Probably put it behind the woodstove this time so it will be there when I need it.

As for the old motor:

The motor shop could have fixed it, but the cost would have been prohibitive. Assuming it was just the start switch (which I think was the problem) the cost for a new switch and replacement bushings and a varnish dip to renew the old insulation (in other words, the minimum “Rebuild” ) the cost would have been within a few dollars of a brand new motor. If there were other issues found after teardown (like a bad start winding) it would have been more…They strongly discouraged me from choosing the rebuild option. They did take the time to find and show me the available motors that they felt would be good quality replacements that should last as long as the original motor. Good people that turned down a job because they felt it was the better option for me.

The original motor, BTW, a Westinghouse (no longer made) date codes to 1978….so that motor is more than 40 years old. It ran a long time.

I almost took the rebuild option but common sense prevailed. Kind of a shame to trash it, really.