[BrianG]

FWIW, you can recover from cutting motor leads that are made up of the coil wires. You just have to remove that varnish insulator. There is a solvent (the name escapes me ATM) that you can dip the ends into and it dissolves the varnish. However, since the motor wires are actually made up of many smaller coil wires, this solvent may have a tendency to wick up the leads dissolving the varnish where you don't want it to causing a potential short. Best not to mess with it IMO.

The MM motor leads CAN be shortened because the leads are simply the typical noodle wire stuff. There is a connection inside the motor that ties the noodle wire to the coil wires. These motors are one of the few that do this.