Consequences of melted winding varnish?

[deepfraught]

Hi folks, I had a couple button sticking instances that meant friction drive bouncing/spinning under max load for a few seconds on two separate occassions.
Having a bit further bad luck two of the screws came loose so I removed it mid-ride. That meant I spotted/smelt the single burnt winding varnish, connected to one of the phase wires (red one in this case). The copper wire didn't look melted at weakest point, but the varnish looked well stuck all over in grey colour up to little burnt droplets that wouldn't shift with a cotton bud prodding.

The motor still runs and soon on my commute home will have dry road to resume testing under load.
I'm wondering what I should keep my senses out for if I was to notice anything different? The 50mm in question on the left, next to the 63mm "tank" on the right I may try if it fits.

 

[Lebowski]

My burned out motor has the same look as your melted varnish. Your's may
still be ok though, if the motor still spins freely (when you turn it at some speed
by hand) then there are no shorts.

 

[dogman dan]

Once it melts enough, the windings short and the motor's kaput. But if you stopped just short of that, you can keep running it.

 

[deepfraught]

Thanks for the explanation, it would explain why it was OK no load test, but first hill climb tonight it burnt out totally.
The great thing about finding a new favourite light road bike commuter, and being a bad luck beta tester, is when electric fails I am still left with a fast kickass road bike. Just no power surplus to make up for excessive late night computer gaming and pedal power commuting daily. Off to see if the 63mm tank of a motor will fit in the space... fingers crossed.
edit: 63mm fit, all rigged up for no load test, and that smell I thought was residual from previous controller that died in the frame bag, was actually the new controller that died when the motor burnt out. Now it just seems like it's shorted internally and heat builds up quickly when switched on, no start up.

So I'll add consequence of dead controller to burnt out motor. Time to order a couple 8Ah packs to upgrade from the 5Ah while I'm at getting a new controller I suppose.