I had the same exact issue with my Control Tower. First it didn't run and I had to disassemble it to see what was going on. Looking at the gears, everything ran fine when the cover was off. When I screwed the gear box back together, I had to make it pretty tight in order for it to work. Mine has a "break" in the gear so after making one revolution, it sticks and pauses for several seconds, before resuming. Is this how it is supposed to work?
I also did the same as you and the removed motor housing, reversed the wires on motor, reattached the diode but the men still goes backward. At this point, the men revolve backwards and pause every quarter turn or so (one revolution of the gear).
