A 9 year old motor? Yeah, that's getting to the outer end of the life expectancy for fractional motors like that. I probably wouldn't rebuild it.

Like I said before, if it was the start capacitor, you'd see the same failure every time, so that's not it . . . or at least, that's not the ONLY problem.

I'm sure there are quality differences between motors, but I wouldn't know how to evaluate them. And the motors are redesigned so often, the 'best' motor could change from year to year.

If your pump is on a lot, I would look for a high efficiency motor. You can compare apples to apples -- if you are comfortable with the tech level -- by matching RLA (Run Load Amps) at equal voltages for given motors. But to do so you must match S.F. (Service Factor) values. High efficiency motors will show lower RLA values at a given voltage, HP, and SF. If this is all goobledy-gook to you, you'll need to match motor to model and simply pick the Hi-E motor if it's a reasonable price difference.

Good luck,

Ben