Mr Greenpants got the problem! One of the three fields was fighting the other two. Depending on how the motor last came to rest, it might get hung up in a dither ansd not turn, or it might rotate forward, albeit at high current, with two windings fighting the third backwards one, like two men dragging a third man, hence the great current draw.

The 6 metal "T" numbers were installed in China for Imperial Electric, but not for Otis.

Each of the three windings had a metal NEMA tag installed on each end. And each winding had the correct pair of metal designations on its' leads, but-

On one winding only, the two NEMA metal tags were installed swapped from end to end. The motor was wound correctly, and the windings each had the correct pair of NEMA metal tags crimped onto its leads, but just one winding was labled backwards. So if you wired it according to the drawing, the magnetic force of that one winding ended up bucking the rotor rotation. Two windings made the rotor turn forward, sometimes...Other times it would not turn at all...depending on the exact degree of rotation as the motor last came to rest.

Greenpants, it sounds like Otis had an issue with this before, eh? I had never seen it in my 25 years, neither did the tank manufacturer, nor the Imperial rep. But if they don't get the Chinese up to speed, me thinks they/we will see it more often.

Looks like everything is being made in China now, the default, low-cost labor factory for the world.