Well I just couldn't leave well enough alone. Before putting oil in and cutting, I spent hours yesterday, vacuuming the area where it was against the garage wall, cleaning the outer saw frame, and then today repainting all. I didn't want to add to the weight of the saw before pushing it back to the wall, as it weighs about 400 pounds, and it was a mess with opossum dung and debris where it sat for years. For 2 years, I had a truck in the garage that I finally sold, so I could only access it after that was gone.
So then looking at the motor box with all these wires hanging out, I thought it would be a good idea to knock a hole in the box and put the power cable in properly, then close the box. I first propped the motor up on a cement block so I could access the area better, then placed a metal rod in and hammered out the bottom slot. I tested the motor before actually disconnecting anything, and it was OK. Then I disconnected the 3 leads, put the power cord through the bottom opening, put the ground back to the screw, and the black to white and the white to the 3 wires, as before. Then, without stuffing all the wires back in, I plugged in and nothing happened with the power switch on or off. Inside the house, I found that the circuit breaker (and not the outlet one) in the electrical box had tripped. I reset, went back to see if any wires were touching anything and moved out a little and tested again and same thing. I disconnected the motor from the switch box and connected the 3 wires to my test plug with 3 bare wires, capped and plugged in. I can't remember if there was a sound or spark, but a little smoke came out at the plug and I quickly pulled out. No circuit had broken in the house though. Looking carefully, I had noticed that it looks like I nicked a wire when I popped the circular plate out, but it wasn't touching anything. I do remember an earlier occasion in the recent rewiring and testing where the motor did not start at first and then I think I moved wires out further from the motor box, but I can't see what might be causing the problem.