Problems with a smaller motor

My Flymo lawnmower started making a nasty noise which I tried to ignore. Unfortunately it got worse. The DE bearing has almost seized and the CE bearing is a little noisy. The CE bearing is also little. I need a press to get the pulley off the shaft. Hopefully the hot bearing hasn't melted it's plastic shaft. I ran it on the ground, out of the mower, for about 10 seconds and the bearing started to smoke! The motor drives a serpentine belt which drives the a much larger pulley above blade. There is a clutch to allow the motor to gain speed before spinning the blades, I guess this reduces the startup current.

The brushes are still in good condition and the commutator has some scoring but isn't so bad. I wonder if the original design called for bearings that wear out first or if this is an unexpected failure.

My grass really needed mowing when this happened.