When I first received the motor I ran it, heard the noise and immediately stopped and pulled it out and tore it down. The commutator wasn’t charred to oblivion or anything crazy, it looked perfectly reasonable. No grooves or damage.
I gave everything a light dusting with the air and a casual rub with a clean shop cloth and a squirt of cleaning spray. I never pulled the brushes out, i just checked to make sure they were long and not crumbling or shot. In hindsight I probably should have pulled the brushes and looked them over and cleaned them too. Everything just looked good inside. Not abused.
I have a new spline to motor bumper coming soon. I can’t honestly recall if I checked to see if one is in there. When I pull the motor to put that on I’ll open her up and give it another look-see for issues or possibly mistakes.
^^^^ Holly ^^^^^ 
Ok, motor is coming out this weekend! Even if I have to run the old one while it gets serviced. Thanks for the info!
Looks like @bundcur was right, just about the wrong vehicle.
I was putting on brand spankin new calipers, rotors, shoes and hardware on the F350 this weekend and my back right had a parking brake stuck to the inside of the drum. That can’t be good for milage or the motor or anything.
Too bad I didn’t have time to look at the GEM yet. ¯_(ツ)_/¯