Ok, motor has been taken apart. WD40 has been administered...

Another question: just how freely should the motor spin unaided when given a manual flick with the hand? Without knowing this it's difficult to assess if my WD40 has been applied liberally enough and in all the right places, and to gauge whether there's anything further amiss with the motor.

Currently, when I flick the white plastic blower blades with my hand, the motor spins on its own for about 1.5-2 revolutions (I'm guessing). It comes to a stop pretty quickly after this and it feels like there's definitely quite a bit of friction within the whole assembly i.e. the spindle isn't constantly loosely turning in response to any movement of the unit (e.g. when picked up)