In article ,
Jon Elson wrote:

after three very short spurts of power it died. There were quite
noticeable and noisy sparks coming from the brushes, and again I'm
unsure if this is normal or not?

No, it isn't normal. A very good chance a brush holder was damaged in
shipping,
or the brushes are just at the edge of worn out. A new set of brushes
might be
found at the hardware store for a couple Dollars.

I tried for about another hour, but couldn't get it to run again. The
motor windings look okay (clean and not blackened) but I can't get the
brushes out. Normally I would expect them to slide out after the
plastic caps are unscrewed, but they don't.

Hmm, it is possible the brush holders have melted.

Yeah, this all sounds pretty much like when the brushes on my
bosch-walkee (a red drill that looked exactly like a blue drill, and was
made in germany, just like the blue tools) hammer drill crapped out. One
took a brush holder with it, and (of course) the only way to buy one of
those was with a kit including both of those and the switch...

--
Cats, coffee, chocolate...vices to live by