woodchucker wrote:

I have no experience, but I can tell you that it is too hot.
Does it have a start capacitor, or run capacitor, or is it a small
motor?
Sounds like maybe the winding might be shorting if the bearings are
free now. If it is not free spinning, than that is still the cause of
the heat.
Figure the motor should be no hotter than 120 at the most.

I agree that the motor is running way too hot for being out in ambient
temperatures. My first suspicion would be the bearings. Like Jeff says,
the first thing to make completely sure of is that the bearings are allowing
the shaft to spin freely. These motors aren't built to develop a lot of
torque and any bind in the bearings will overheat the motor. At some point
running it like this will likely result in Jeff's other speculation -
shorted windings resultant from over current.

--

-Mike-