Just lost the use of rad. cooling fan on my mk6 escort ghia, causing the engine to overheat.

A friend has tried to bybass the tstat, to run the fan permanently but claims the fan motor may be broken because it causes a short when the fan starts to turn.

He cut into a cable near the n/s headlight and made a bridge to the battery, but the improvised "internal fuse" connected through the bridge kept tripping a few seconds after the fan began spinning.

if i need to replace the fan, can i just change the motor bit in the
middle of the assembly, or does the whole fan assembly with the frame and blades need to be dismantled ? Not sure if anything else could cause
this.

Any ideas or other suggestions as to why this would be would be welcomed.