Well - you wouldnt believe it!!!!....
I was curious why all the armature segments were showing zero resistance to one another....
discussed this with a guy at work today and he indicated it might be supposed to be that way.
We had a bit of a navel gaze and he tried to convince himself and myself that the wire should be continuous.
Well I couldnt get this continuity from the main terminals when I had pressed the brush arms in as far as I could. So in the process I broke an arm. Decided to break the other on e and try to connect the 12V aligator clips to the remnant brush pieces, set them against the armature and wacko!!....away she went.
Well of course the end cap and brushes are stuffed, but it lends me to think that I can buy any old motor with a similar end cap, dismantle it and stick it onto the old PM body and should work! Could be going by tommorrow if I'm prepared to fork out $15 for a motor so I can actually dismantle it.