Thank you all, and I'm sorry I didn't elaborate that the friend is a "web friend", so I don't have Motor in hand to inspect.
I've never had problems with my own HW-19 (yet) to yank, and inspect the Motor.
Yes, I did suggest to this person to give VPI a ring.
Good to know that at the least that VPI still does stock the Motor, and that all is not lost.
With a bit of "VPI Motor" searching (on A-Asylum), I did come up with Hurst as the Manufacturer, found an old post mentioning that the Motor was Part #PB3203-001, but in a search couldn't find this particular motor on hand on a further web search.
Mark