>
> Quite honestly, unless david b pipes in and slaps me down, I don’t think
> the cap really makes a hell of a diff.

I can't say whether it helps but I think it's "worth a try" -- my
observation is that it's the outer bearing that seizes.  The glaring
difference between it and the inner bearing is that the inner one is
protected from incoming air/dust flow by the blower body; whilst the outer
one is not.  The other difference of course is that it's the commutator
end.  I don't have a feeling for whether that makes a difference to the
bearing.

Yrs,
d