Been there with a Dayton motor myself. Grabbed a cheap grease gun from the hardware store and made it a habit to hit those fittings every time I changed the furnace filter. That little routine turned a six month motor into one that ran six years without a peep. The key is using the right grease too - standard lithium grease works fine for most furnace motors, just don't overdo it or you'll blow the seals. A couple pumps is plenty, and you'll hear the difference in how quiet the motor runs after. That two minute job pays for itself about fifty times over compared to pulling a seized motor out of a hot furnace.

Did your friend @ray613 ever get burned by a similar situation? My buddy Tom took his old lawnmower to a guy who quoted him $30 to fix it, and Tom almost walked out saying the same thing about buying a new one for $50. But he let the guy take a look, and it ended up being just a dirty carburetor that took like 20 minutes to clean. Now Tom says that $30 was the best money he ever spent because that mower runs better than any new one he could have grabbed from the store.