help noisy vpi motor

you may have already checked this, but - is the cover interferring with the pully? That is, are you sure it's the motor making the sound, or could it be the pully rubbing on the cover. I had a HW19 and the cover would rub the pully unless washers were placed between the cover/plate and the stand-offs.

It's definitely not the pulley, and the noise is audible up to three feet away. I'll check around for a motor, I'm afraid the SAMA will be out of my price range. Thanks for your help! Ben

Troydion is selling a motor for 75.00 on audiogon.
You might also want to try some oil on the shaft it will seep into the bearings. I had a Sama that ticked and that is how I stoped it. It looks sealed but it is not. I also had mine running while I did it.

I own a table that uses a Hurst motor and had done some tweeking which involved pushing the pulley down on its shaft which ended up pushing the armature against the bottom cap of the motor housing which made a sound not unike what you're describing. I was able to reposition the spindle/armature within the housing with little effort and take care of the problem.

Rest assured that even inaudible resonances of the motor are affecting the sound although you won't know it until you get rid of them.