Leak could be thro' the casing joints or the cable entry my first guess. But just slowly check all around.Thanks for the tips! Yes, I'll give it a try to fix, with the cost of parts (motor, controller) being 1/3 of a new motor. Definitely makes sense to try that.
I have no idea from where the water entered the motor. I need to do some more inspection (had no time over the weekend) and hopefully can find the root cause and am able to fix it.