Ok had another look tonight and the plate says 440 star, so might be in luck, bought some smaller gear pullers and got the motor apart without damaging it. Only 3 wires + earth go in to the motor there looks to be more wires joined and pushed down into the casing. not brave enough to dig them out yet, think I had better find a diagram for which wires are which coil.

if it was possible to convert to 240v what size inverter would I need? rated 0.25kW@ 440v so 0.125kW@ 240v? I have an inverter that I bought for the lathe but Its 1.5kW so might fry the small motor.

thanks for the 240>440 info but I think that if the motor cant be rewired to run on 240 then I will do the DC motor swap which looks a bit easier now I know I can use the existing top plate.
Cheers