well, that vac that was giving me a hard time on the remote stopped working. I had to give the motor a spin to get it to work.
Well, I didn't feel like taking it apart again. So I decided to look at the brushes. They looked beefy, but obviously between the commutator and brushes there was a problem. I refaced the brushes, did more damage then help the first time. Tried again... got it close. gave it a minute to break in and the sparks lowered. Cleaned the commutator again, this time while running with an eraser. Nice and clean.
Put it all back together, and it now shuts with the remote. Too bad I didn't have the capacitor in hand... I would have added it.