cheapo esc went up in smoke, motor issues found, but were they the problem.

[sikeston34m]

The loose front plate would cause a short inside the motor winding, IF the armature was rubbing the winding inside. Take a look down it's throat. It should be easy to tell if it was. There will be some of the copper winding that is ground away.

On the motor leads, you will get continuity because they are all connected internally since it is a 3 phase motor. Either wound with a Delta or a Wye Termination.

The only test that you can really do, without expensive ohm measuring equipment under a load, is to check for continuity between the motor leads and the casing. If there is, then there is an internal short.

If the ESC was running hot anyway, it probably just overheated and gave up.

I would put the motor back together and try it with a different ESC. Just a short test shouldn't burn another ESC.