The reversed direction was a joke right? I think it confused a few.

Anyway it does sound like wire, as said just move it to a malfunctioning position and test the continuity with a multi-meter. At the motor end you probably don't have access to the bare wire so you could push a pin through the wire insulation into the core and then you can test from that.

To be honest though, wire doesn't tend to break, the connection points do, at the plug and at the motor. You might end up needing to open the motor case to check where the wire joins.