I bet I know exactly the saw you are talking about - I had one. One day I got smart and decided to clean out the motor, and opened it up to clean all the windings etc... I missed something, and when I put it back together and hit the switch it went " sizzle...". Turns out those motors are irreplaceable, and it couldnt be rewound. I had to replace the saw, and the newer ones arent nearly as good as the old ones.

: Just a shot in the dark. Unless the motor literally burned out, if you
: haven't checked these two thngs, don't throw it out yet. Your motor may
: have a thermal override switch (a little red button on my motor which is a
: 15 year old Craftsman radial) which will kick out if the motor is working
: too hard, and, 2. dust in the motor contacts. On my machine the button
: doesn't pop out enough to visually tell whether it has popped. It won't
: reset until the motor cools enough and it takes a lot of pressure to reset
: it when it does (it will click.

: A little dust in the contacts will bring things to a halt quickly. The
: solution is usually just a blast of compressed air into the end of the
: housing where the contacts are.

: Cheers.