I ended up replacing mine with a motor off of a motorized reindeer Christmas lawn ordiment.
While looking to fix the lights after a couple seasons, I noticed the motor which still worked fine to have a new use.
A bit of rewiring was needed as it was 120vac but has been working fine for many years now. So it's the perfect time of year to hunt for that motor. I can't remember if I needed to make up a coupler or not??
I was under the impression that the stall of the motor and the eventual phase shift of the current is what reversed the direction.??
I have never found anything good to repair that gear, my father actually had a crack at it a couple of times for me as well but both attempts lasted about 30secs.