[COLOR="Blue"] received my replacement motor for my dryer today and I assumed it would spin freely, but it takes some effort to turn the motor. No grinding or anything, but I can't spin the shafts with a few fingers.
Is this typical for a new motor?[/COLOR]
Without actually being there to turn the armature myself I cannot be sure but it sounds OK to me.

[COLOR="Blue"]One more thing- After I replaced the rollers, idler and belt to see if that was my problem, the dryer would run but shut down after about 5 minutes, where before it would just make noise. I assumed that the new belt and idler put additional tension on the motor and it was the final straw for the noisy thing. Thant sound reasonable?[/COLOR]
Yes it does , sort of.
When you replaced the parts you actually put less tension (load) on the motor.
That is why it would not start and then did with the new parts.
But the motor was on it's last legs and even with less load was still overheating.