Bacon slicer advice needed

[Parazine]

I have never done it, Bill but I imagine that swapping over which wire is connected to which terminal of the electric motor would reverse the direction of rotation.

Only on a motor that has its field supplied from a permanent magnet.

In a starter motor, the magnetic field is produced from an electromagnet (i.e. the field windings). Thus the field is reversed as well as the current flow in the armature when the supply is reversed and the motor always revolves in the same direction - as long as the field connections are not altered.

Did any of the internal connections get remade?

Is it possible the motor (as opposed to the whole assembly) is from another type of vehicle altogether?