Unfortunately, I just experienced modern (7 year old) dryer motor construction. The thing is literally glued together, with no good way to break it apart. Mine seized up a week ago, and I tried to tear it apart to see if I could do anything with the bearings. Well, there were no real bearings (at least as I define them). Fortunately, I found one on eBay for $25 (for my dryer). You may need to lookfor older motors than mine to be able to do anything with them. I used to complain about having to drill out rivets (instead of screws). Now we have to find a way to grind away glue!
Aye, the ones I did used four u-shaped channels, with four "tabs" on each end, folded over, to hold the endplates on. I folded back the tabs to get the endplates off, and for reassembly I inserted threaded rod into the u-channel, and held the endplates on with nuts (assemble the endplates slowly, making sure they are centered by checking to ensure that the rotor still turns smoothly).
As for bearings, all of the ones I encountered used sleeve bearings.Jon
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