Rebuilt my motor side for about $1 and still works strong after about 3-4K miles. If you know what you are doing it should last just as long as a new one...even still it's cheaper and you get to learn something new.
It's still on it's way out. Mine did this as well. Order one now and save yourself the headache for when it finally decides to stop for good. I too went the ebay rout. $90 shipped and about 30 minutes of time and she'll be good for another 50k miles or so.