Front Hub Brush Motor making noise

[alpharalpha]

Hello, I have a Wilderness Energy front hub brush motor that I've been lightly using for the past 3 years. Recently when the wheel is turning but the motor is not turned on it's making this repeating rrr, rrr sound, but when I turn the motor on it's not noticeable. Does anyone know what this might be?
(btw, I wanted to send this as an pm to Dogman Dan since he used to have this same motor but read that we should post questions instead so others can have access to the information.)

 

[amberwolf]

While its possible the brushes would be making the noise, its more likely to be something in the wheel itself, like brake pads rubbing due to distorted braking surface.

If its a geared hub, its also possible the clutch is stuck, so youre hearing the gears turning when they shouldnt be. If you lift the wheel off ground it should turn very freely forward, and have some resistance turning backward. If it feels about the same both ways, either its a DD motor or its clutch has stuck if its geared.