@gunrunnerjohn posted:I have to believe there was something else afoot with the motor, I can't even conceive how static discharge (short of a giant Tesla coil) would damage a can motor!
I gotta go with GRJ on this one -- I suspect a static discharge large enough to kill a can motor would have done more to impair the *OP's* functioning than it would the relatively simple and robust motor. You'd need quite a few amps to damage the simple coils and connections in the motor, far in excess of what the human body could tolerate (spoken by someone who still vividly remembers discharging a 600 volt power supply capacitor with his finger some 60 years ago! 
).
