@RyanFrancis looks like you are right. It's not a pretty sight though. It's a #worm #gear with a large #pitch angle where the column #gear is #plastic and the #motor is directly linked:

https://youtu.be/z56A9ccI5sU?si=g2g4TE10Gr3h6zF-

That motor could fail locked and you would be sol. For example a broken #brush or #burnt up wire could end up in the winding area between #windings and #magnet cage locking your #steering column. It feels pretty safe though. It would be pretty unlikely to fail.

The actual 3-phase motor is #simple - that's one of the reasons they're used in industry, simple means less to go #wrong. And it appears to be well-made, so there are #quality #bearings and #windings and everything in it. But the motor itself isn't expensive. Rheem probably doesn't pay more than USD 100 for that part of it, and maybe less.

But the bolted-on #control #module #electronics, which make it so you can't easily replace the motor with another unit, are #terrible.

18/x

How does it #sense the #speed the motor is turning at? The motor only has 3 terminals, and those go to the points between the three motor #windings. There isn't another #signal coming out of the motor to tell the #controller how fast it's actually turning.

Except...

Apparently, while driving those three motor windings, it is #simultaneously sensing the back-#EMF that the windings (which are essentially #electromagnetic #coils) produce from those same terminals.

12/x