Hi chrisay,
I have also made the modification you have mentioned and it works perfectly, however, i have used the new motor shell since the magnets there fells to be stronger, and i had a problem closing up the original motors.
In any case i send a quote to the guy that sold me the motors on ebay, since he is selling a replacement motor, can he sell ones without the shafts since we are using the original ones.
P.S. can i use some of your photo's to share on our local Subaru forums ? (of course you will get the credits).
Thanks.