Blower Motor Hard to Turn

Just spent 90 minutes pulling my non-working blower motor with the help of JSlabotsky great wikki... ( http://www.peachparts.com/Wikka/W124BlowerMotor )The motor will spin at 13v (max fax on CCP) if I give it a little spin on the squirrel cage to get it started, otherwise it does nothing. On low fan setting the motor does not turn at all. After taking the motor from it's mounting bracket I found that rotating the shaft was abit stickey... it will not freely spin. Looks like there is about 3/8" left on the brushes (from what I see without removing them) However, the bearings at either end of the motor are somewhat rusty.

My question: is there something i can do to get the motor free'd up, i.e. lubricating the bearings/shaft or am I looking at replacing the motor/squirrel cages? Winter is nearly apon me... gonna need the heat.

BTW, I have proper voltages coming from CCP all the way up to the motor... checked last week

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

1991 300E

EADG